I would like to open by
suggesting you read all or most of the following links:
"Twin Probes to Map
Earth's Gravity"
"A World of Ice Beneath
the Rust"
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-odyssey-02e.html "Mars Global Surveyor
Begins Second Year of Extended Mission"
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/1yearExtend/index.html These are just a few
recent examples of the satellite hardware that is required to gather basic
information on a planet's structure. They each cost millions of dollars, it
takes between 6 and twenty-four just to explore one planet thoroughly, and we
must include sufficient of each type with the exploratory vehicle to survey the
expected number of planets in the new system.
We must also be able to
deploy systemic survey craft on the way into the system. These craft must be
capable of detailed surveys of the star's magnetosphere, solar wind, gravity
field, planetary orbits, asteroids, comets, Oort cloud object,
etc.
In other words,
irregardless of the mass required for the humans on the survey vessel, there
must be allowance made for a significant payload of remote probes.
I recently posted a link
to a story about an "on orbit" assembly program that was focusing upon
delivering smaller, more robust modules to orbit for assembly there, thereby
increasing the functionality and reducing the cost of fielding a modern high
capability satellite. This is probably one of the saner things I have heard
about and it has obvious direct applicability to extrasolar survey
missions.
For those of you who
are/were familiar with Kelly's original numbers for the Explorer class and my
limited proposal for the Pathfinder class, perhaps it is time to revisit them
and refine them a little.
Lee
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