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Technical Paper

RTG Impact Response to Hard Landing During Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Mission

1992-08-03
929480
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is studying a seven-year robotic mission (MESUR, Mars Environmental Survey) for the seismic, meteorological, and geochemical exploration of the Martian surface by means of a network of - 16 small, inexpensive landers spread from pole to pole. To permit operation at high Martian latitudes, NASA has tentatively decided to power the landers with small RTGs (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators). To support the NASA mission study, the Department of Energy's Office of Special Applications commissioned Fairchild to perform specialized RTG design studies. Those studies indicated that the cost and complexity of the mission could be significantly reduced if the RTGs had sufficient impact resistance to survive ground impact of the landers without retrorockets. Fairchild designs of RTGs configured for high impact resistance were reported previously.
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