Hopper Missions to Triton and Pluto using a Vehicle with In-Situ Refueling

Abstract

Global surface mobility is the key to comprehensive exploration of the diverse surfaces of worlds such as Triton. We propose to do this with a rocket-powered "hopper" vehicle • The Triton Hopper is a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) project to design a mission to not merely land, but repeatedly fly across the surface of Triton, utilizing the volatile surface ices (primarily nitrogen) as propellant for a radioisotope-heated thermal rocket engine to launch across the surface and explore all the moon's varied terrain. • With a calculated range of 20 km per hop, equator-to-pole mobility can be achieved over a primary mission duration of 2 years. • The same concept of using in-situ ices to refuel a radioisotope engine for global mobility would be applicable to other airless bodies in the solar system. Using Nuclear Electric Propulsion for the transfer vehicle, the same concept can be applied for a mission to the surface of Pluto. The mission described would be either a flagship-class mission, or a component of a flagshipclass mission that also includes science investigations of Neptune and its smaller moons.