Enceladus sampling drone (V8)
Robotic plume sampling runs from the station
Robotic plume sampling runs from the station. Robotic: people stay at the station. Small puffs from green monopropellant thrusters carry the drone to the plumes and back, because on Enceladus the speed needed to escape is only 239 m/s.
Propulsion: Green monopropellant thrusters. Envelope: 2.5 m long by 3 m maximum diameter design
All input and derived values below are read from assets/data/vehicles.json, generated by scripts/analysis/vehicle_budget.py. Values marked “verify” are not established facts.
Open the 3D model See it in the tour How the propulsion works
Inputs
| Input | Value | Basis and notes |
|---|---|---|
| Isp, s | 250 | physics AF-M315E / ASCENT green monopropellant: Isp ~ 250 s (NASA GPIM) |
| Dry mass, kg | 300 | design |
| Hop distance, km | 110 | design station at 55 S to the plume source region |
| Design Δv, m/s | 500 | design out, sample, back, land, margin |
Derived performance
| Quantity | Value |
|---|---|
| Enceladus circular speed at surface, m/s | 169 |
| Enceladus escape speed, m/s | 239 |
| Mass ratio | 1.226 |
| Propellant, kg | 68 |
| Propellant volume, L | 46 |
| Propellant tanks | 2 |
| Propellant tank diameter, m | 0.35 |