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Astra-Planetshine β Caelus orbiter
#3d #blender #caelus #moons #orbiter #planet #probe #space #spacecraft #uranus #explorer #instruments #spaceexplosion #technology
Published: 2015-06-07 18:24:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 4023; Favourites: 31; Downloads: 24
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Now interactive in 3D! sketchfab.com/models/e12b0def1β¦
you can also download the models here: sta.sh/0rx12li10gp
All my life i have dreamed about sending a spacecraft to the 7th planet, unfortunate for its name, Uranus is very commonly skipped and ignored. I guess for this reason i have always wanted to understand and see the true beauty of this planet that people look over so easily, and the fact that we know so absolutely little about it make it my dream to explore.
after seeing all the incredible science and discoveries Cassini made at Saturn, who knows what kinds of amazing things we could find at bizarre Uranus and its moon system in that same resolution and detail.
just imagine!
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Mission goals:
-Characterize the internal structure of Uranus and how its magnetic field is generated and why it is off center.
-A general understanding of how ice Giant planets work.
-Understand how Uranus formed and why it is sideways.
-Map in detaile the complex cloud structures of Uranus in IR and how they change over time.
-Understand the influence of Uranus in the formation of the solar system.
-fully map the unseen hemispheres of the moons of Uranus in high resolution.
-Characterize the material in the rings and understand their origins.
-Photograph the shape and surfaces of the smaller moons of Uranus.
-Discover any unseen rings and moons in the Uranus system.
-understand the chemical composition of the clouds and atmosphere of Uranus at various depths.
-understand the winds and circulation patterns in Uranus's atmosphere.
-Search for any possible evidence of subsurface oceans inside any of the moons.
-understand the formation and structure of Miranda and any possible past tectonic activity or cryovolcanoes.
.. did i miss any?
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related to this drawing. fav.me/d80z1x0
And here is a cool picture i found of what its trajectory path to Uranus might look like by 
Did you notice i used the new International Flag of the Planet Earth? ^^ I hate single country patriotic flags. sorry, they are annoying as hell to me as they are just a symbol of ego in my eyes, they forget how small the earth really is and how pointless a single country is deep in space.
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This model has been sitting on my computer for a long time. i figured i should give it a little paint and cleaning and show it. even if i do end up doing more with it in the future. also, I am not a planetary scientist, so I am not sure 100% what instruments would be scientifically valuable to take to Uranus.
I have made many versions of this moddle over the long years time. It used to be named Hershel named after the discoverer of Uranus. It was perfect, because the spacecraft that explored Jupiter was named Galileo after the guy who observed Jupiter, same with Cassini Saturn, so Hershel sounded like the next name for the next planet. Though unfortunately the name Hershel was used for a space telescope that only lasted 4 years. So I guess I can't name this craft that..
Made in Blender 3D Cycles, freestyle, edited in GIMP.
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Comments: 43
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Wait how does the spacecraft orbit Uranus? Does it orbit in the plane of Uranus' moons, or the plane of Uranus' orbit around the sun?
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It first starts off in a high inclined orbit in the plane of the rest of the solar system, but after several gravity assists and flybys of the moons it finds its way into an orbit with all the other moons. kinda like how Cassini did things at Saturn. i also had originally planned that it would fly past one of the outer moons of Uranus before burning into orbit. Sycorax or something.
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Ok thanks.
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If the 3D Model of this spacecraft could be downloadable, then I'd use it in Cinema 4D!
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ZIP No Preview
tada!
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inspired by the same era i guess = )
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You could have also called it "Shakespeare."
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true. i very well could. though i think the first thing people think about when they hear Shakespeare is how they were forced to read Shakespeare in school... well that's what pops in my mind anyway lol ^'^;
but i see what you mean = ) maybe if the name Shakespeare itself was modified to be slightly different for the name of the spacecraft then it could work and have new meaning to it.
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Schejkspir, maybe? Gives a vaguely Nordic feel.
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Yeah something like that~ !
or Shakspieria or something.
even The Shakespearian sounds cool too, almost like the name of a seagoing vessel.
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Or maybe Hamlet!
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that one too, = )
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Maybe Ε ekspir-Hamlet? Hamlet being the atmospheric probe?
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That could work, though it is sounding a bit forced somehow. you could also name the spacecraft after who discovered/observed the planet, such as Cassini and Galileo
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It actually kind of looks like the voyager spacecrafts. Interesting!
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thanks, i guess i am just calling back to the times of exploration with the voyagers, pioneer, Galileo and Cassini. = )
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Yup. I can't wait for the orbiter to reach Uranus!
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hopefully it will happen within our lifetimes
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Nice project! Allow me a few comments:
It shouldn't be a big problem to reuse the name Herschel. After all, the telescope has been inactive since 2009. The name Columbia was used for both the space shuttle and Apollo 11's command/service module, while Galileo is now used for the European satellite navigation system.
A dipole microwave antenna works best if the antennas are split by 90 degrees, not around 45 degrees as in your concept. Also, this design is not restricted to microwaves. Voyager's Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) & Plasma Wave Subsystem (PWS), which shared the same 10 m dipole antenna, have a range (in three different frequency bands) from only 10 Hz to 40.5 MHz. Cassini uses three orthogonal antennas, with a spectrum range from 1 Hz to 16 MHz.
Although never tested in space yet, a nuclear thermal thruster will probably have to be HUGE to work properly, not a tiny thing like the one on your spacecraft. They also use liquid hydrogen as fuel. Because of temperature requirements, liquid hydrogen is difficult to store in a spacecraft even for a few hours or days, no mention a 25+ years mission like a Uranus orbiter. You could use thick walled high pressure tanks, but they are heavy, and also need to be huge due to the low density of hydrogen. Also, nuclear engines need shielding to avoid disturbing the spacecraft's delicate scientific instruments, or be placed on a long boom.
Ione engines could be a better solution, they also have much higher specific impulse (but much lower thrust). But like nuclear thermal thruster, they are power thirsty. A single ARTG may deliver say 500 W at mission start, which should cover all spacecraft system. Dawn's huge solar panels deliver about 10,000 W at Earth and 1600 W at 2.5 AU (approx. Ceres distance), but it's ione engines still gives only 50-90 milliNewton of thrust.
It seems like you use a single axis rotating scan platform for the remote instruments. If so, it would probably be a better solution to tilt its rotation axis perpendicular to the high gain antennae boresight axis (like on the Galileo Jupiter orbiter). If tilted at 45 degrees, as it may look at your design, it's instruments will not be able to look along the Earth/spacecraft axis ("forward" or "backward") without turning the HGA away from the Earth. Of course, both New Horizons and Cassini use instruments fixed on the spacecraft body and rotate the whole spacecraft to point their instruments. More cumbersome for sure, but they also completely avoid the added cost, complexity and risk (remember Voyager 2 at Saturn) with a scan platform.
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Holy farts you put in a lot of words!!
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woahhh wall of text!
lol, thanks for all the thought and information. though that said, it seems ill have to entirely redesign everything again from the ground up. but i guess at the end of the day its not like im an engineer or physicist so i wouldn't expect perfect. and i don't even know if my mission goals are even possible realistically.
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Question: will the attitude thrusters be used also for trajectory corrections? Using less thrust could increase the precision of the maneuvers.
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yes they most likely would be, the main engine would do the major adjustments though as usual = ) though gyros are used for rotation when possible to save fuel, though thrusters can be used to rotate the spacecraft if needed in emergency
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I made a new trajectory: one more, so to speak, balanced.
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oh nice i like that one a lot = ) nice job!
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I think that the instruments must include IR camera, since you can much features of the atmosphere in IR than in visible ligth but I am not a specialist.
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For sure! i believe i did put an IR camera on it. Was this the picture you were thinking of?
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No 
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Ah that too! A lot of things look different in the IR band, you can learn alot about many other planets and moons with it too.
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it could also examine Titania for possible hydrocarbon plains, voyager is believed to have detected some hydrocarbons but it was such a small detection that it was ruled out as error.
I have read 'the Case for a Uranian Probe' and if you haven't I would recommend it. it says a lot of what you say as mission goals.
but thisΒ probe is aΒ standard sort of design and iΒ sort of wish you had been more creative, though the model looks great and the lighting is just right.
as for the flag, well it makes me think a United Nations Space Program might be a good idea.
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That's very true too, there will certainly be many other unknown discoveries as well that would be worth exploring.
i have done a lot of looking around at probe proposals too, there certainly have been a few and they are very interesting!
what other designs are there? I knew this layout worked, it was heavily inspired by the successful Voyager and Cassini probes. i cant think of any other structure i could have done.
It was the new flag that someone created for the planet earth itself.
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You could have gone for the Ulysses and New Horizons triangular setup, or the blocky shape of the LRO, or even a new wonderful shape.Β
And about a planet earth flag, well, space missions are hard enough to get going without a United planet being a prerequisite
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Maybe so. But i think at that point its a taste in style, i never really liked the New Horizons design personally 
lol that's true indeed : p Maybe it will be better in the future though when asteroid mining becomes a thing and more money goes to space who knows!
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Megaprojects like long-duration space probes seem like a good candidate for a planetary flag, all things considered.Β (It's probably the only way to scrape up the money unless NH2 sees the light of day.)
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for sure
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