Robotic spacecraft « SDA Movers

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An artist’s interpretation of the MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury

A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost and lower risk factors. In addition, some planetary destinations such as Venus or the vicinity of Jupiter are too hostile for human survival, given current technology. Outer planets such as Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spaceflight technology, so telerobotic probes are the only way to explore them.

Many artificial satellites are robotic spacecraft, as are many landers and rovers.

Contents

1 History
2 Design
3 Control
4 List of space probes
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

History

The first space mission, Sputnik 1, was an artificial satellite put into Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. On 3 November 1957, the Soviets orbited Sputnik 2, the first to carry a living animal into space – a dog.

The United States achieved its first successful space probe launch with the orbit of Explorer 1 on 31 January 1958. Explorer 1 weighed less than 14 kilograms compared to 83.6 kg and 508.3 kg for Sputniks 1 and 2 respectively. Nonetheless, Explorer 1 detected a narrow band of radiation surrounding the Earth, named the Van Allen belts after the scientist whose equipment detected it.

Only six other countries have successfully launched missions using their own vehicles: France (1965), Japan (1970), China (1970), the United Kingdom (1971), India (1981) and Israel (1988).

Most American space probe missions have been coordinated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and European missions by the European Space Operations Centre, part of the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA has conducted relatively fewer space exploration missions in the past (one example is the Giotto mission, which encountered comet Halley), but have launched several interplanetary spacecraft in recent years (e.g. Rosetta space probe, Mars Express, Venus Express). ESA has, however, launched many spacecraft to carry out astronomy, and is a collaborator with NASA on the Hubble Space Telescope. There have been many successful Russian space missions. There have also been a few Japanese, Chinese and Indian missions.

Design

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (October 2007)

In spacecraft design, the United States Air Force considers a vehicle to consist of the mission payload and the bus (or platform). The bus provides physical structure, thermal control, electrical power, attitude control and telemetry, tracking and commanding.

JPL divides the “flight system” of a spacecraft into subsystems. These include:

Structure

This is the physical backbone structure. It:

provides overall mechanical integrity
ensures spacecraft components are supported and can withstand launch loads

Data handling

This is sometimes referred to as the command and data subsystem. It is often responsible for:

command sequence storage
maintaining the spacecraft clock
collecting and reporting spacecraft telemetry data (e.g. spacecraft health)
collecting and reporting mission data (e.g. photographic images)

Attitude and articulation control

See also: Attitude control system

This system is responsible for the spacecraft’s orientation in space (attitude) and the positioning of movable parts. Attitude is controlled in order to:

point an antenna at Earth for communications
point onboard instruments for collection of data
adjust heating effects of sunlight
for guidance during propulsive maneuvers

Telecommunications

Components in the telecommunications subsystem include radio antennas, transmitters and receivers. These may be used to communicate with ground stations on Earth, or with other spacecraft.

Electrical power

The supply of electric power on spacecraft come from photovoltaic (solar) cells or from a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Other components of the subsystem include batteries for storing power and distribution circuitry that connects components to the power sources.

Temperature control and protection from the environment

Spacecraft are often protected from temperature fluctuations with insulation. Some spacecraft use mirrors and sunshades for additional protection from solar heating. The also often need shielding from micrometeoroids and orbital debris.

Propulsion

Main article: Spacecraft propulsion

Mechanical devices

Mechanical components often need to be moved for deployment after launch or prior to landing. In addition to the use of motors, many one-time movements are controlled by pyrotechnic devices.

Control

Robotic spacecraft use telemetry to radio back to Earth acquired data and vehicle status information. Although generally referred to as “remotely-controlled” or “telerobotic”, the earliest orbital spacecraft — such as Sputnik 1 and Explorer 1 — did not receive control signals from Earth. Soon after these first spacecraft, command systems were developed to allow remote control from the ground. Increased autonomy is important for distant probes where the light travel time prevents rapid decision and control from Earth. Newer probes such as Cassini-Huygens and the Mars Exploration Rovers are highly autonomous and use on-board computers to operate independently for extended periods of time.

List of space probes

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Space probe . (Discuss)

This is a condensed version of the more detailed List of Solar System probes.

Lunar probes

See also: Robotic exploration of the Moon

Luna program — Soviet Lunar exploration (1959–1976).
Ranger program — US Lunar hard-landing probes (1961–1965).
Zond program — Soviet Lunar exploration (1964–1970).
Surveyor program — US Lunar soft-landing probe (1966–1968).
Lunar Orbiter program — US Lunar orbital (1966–1967).
Lunokhod program — Soviet Lunar Rover probes (1970–1973).
Muses-A mission (Hiten and Hagoromo) — Japanese Lunar orbital and hard-landing probes (1990–1993).
Clementine — US Lunar orbital (1998).
Lunar Prospector — US Lunar orbital (1998–1999).
Smart 1 — European Lunar orbital (2003).
SELENE — Japanese lunar orbiter (2007).
Chang’e 1 — Chinese lunar orbiter (2007).

Mars probes

See also: Exploration of Mars

Zond program — failed Soviet flyby probe
Mars probe program — Soviet orbiters and landers
Viking program — Two NASA orbiters and landers (1974)
Phobos program — Failed Soviet orbiters and Phobos landers
Mars Pathfinder — NASA lander and rover (1997)
Mars Surveyor ‘98 program (Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander) — Failed NASA probes
Mars Global Surveyor – NASA orbiter
Mars Odyssey — NASA orbiter, reached Mars on October 24, 2001
Mars Observer — failed NASA Mars orbiter
Mars Express (Mars Express Orbiter and Beagle 2) — European orbiter and failed lander 2003
Mars Exploration Rovers — NASA rovers (2004)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — NASA orbiter, entered Martian orbit March 10, 2006
Phoenix — NASA lander, landed May 25, 2008
Mars Science Laboratory — NASA rover, to be launched 2009

Venus probes

Venera program — Soviet Venus orbiter and lander
Vega program — Soviet mission to Venus and Comet Halley
Pioneer Venus project — US Venus orbiter
Magellan probe — US Venus orbiter
Venus Express — ESA probe sent for the observation of the Venus’s weather in 2005.

Gas giant probes

Pioneer program — US Jupiter and Saturn flybys
Voyager program — US Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune flyby and study of interstellar space
Galileo probe — US Jupiter orbiter and atmosphere probe
Cassini-Huygens — US-European Saturn orbiter and Titan lander Huygens (1997–present)

Comet and asteroid probes

International Cometary Explorer — pass through gas tail of comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner (1985)
Giotto mission — European — flyby of comet 1P/Halley (1986)
Vega 1 & 2 — Soviet — flyby of comet 1P/Halley (1986)
Sakigake probe — Japanese — flyby of comet 1P/Halley (1986)
Suisei probe — Japanese — flyby of comet 1P/Halley (1986)
NEAR Shoemaker — US — asteroid lander, launched 1996
Deep Space 1 — US — comet 19P/Borrelly and asteroid flyby, 1998–2000
Stardust probe — US — comet 81P/Wild flyby and sample return, launched 1999, flied-by 2004, returned January 15, 2006
CONTOUR — US — comet flyby mission (comets 2P, 73P and 6P); launch failure in 2003
Hayabusa — Japanese — asteroid orbiter, lander and sample return, launched 2003
Rosetta — European — comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko orbiter and lander (Philae); launched 2004
Deep Impact — successful US comet 9P/Tempel impactor, launched 2005
Deep Impact/EPOXI — US — comet 103P/Hartley flyby (extended Deep Impact mission) — 2010
Stardust/NExT — US — comet 9P/Tempel flyby (extended Stardust mission) — 2011

Solar observation probes

Ulysses — Solar particles and fields
Genesis — First solar wind sample return mission, 2001–2004 (crash)
Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) — scheduled to launch in the summer of 2008.
Advanced Composition Explorer — Solar particles and fields observation at Earth-Sun L1 point
STEREO — Pair of probes in solar orbits providing 3D observations of sun

Other solar system probes

Zond program — Soviet flyby missions to the Moon, Venus, and Mars
Mariner program — US Mercury, Venus and Mars flybys
MESSENGER — US Mercury orbiter, launched 2004
New Horizons — launched on January 19, 2006 — First probe to visit Pluto (in July 2015)
Dawn (spacecraft) — launched on September 27, 2007 — First probe to visit Ceres and Vesta (in 2011 and 2009 respectively)

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Robotic spacecraft

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