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Completed TRL 3 (started at 2, targeting 3)
Phase II for the Triton Hopper will focus on retiring the risks identified in Phase I and providing better detail and alternate conceptual options. The three main risks to be addressed include Triton hopper mission, propellant collection, and propulsion performance. For the Triton mission both delivery to Triton in a timely manner ~ 15 yrs and safe takeoff and landing of the hopper on the Triton terrain will be explored. For propellant collection a bevameter experiment will be performed on a small sample of frozen nitrogen to assess ways to best gather the frozen nitrogen propellant. For the propulsion performance ways will be explored to heat the propellant to higher temperatures and or to reduce dry mass to enable further hops. Using these three products two Compass concurrent engineering runs will be performed; the first of which focusses on integrating the findings of mission/propellant collection and the second on integrating the findings which increase hop distance. Phase II will end with roadmapping technology development solutions as well as using such techniques for other icy worlds to gather propellants for hopping.
The Triton Hopper addresses NASA's strategic goals 2, 3, and 6 by exploring the Triton environment, the first exploration of a KBO which could hold clues to how the solar system formed. It will create new technologies in the form of a semi-autonomous planetary hopping vehicles which use frozen gases for propellants and would capture the imaginations of educators and students by sharing with them exploration of a completely new envi- ronment on a foreign world. Triton Hopper will also address the NASA technology areas of Space Power and Energy Storage, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Communications and Navigation Systems, Science Instru- ments and Sensors, Nanotechnology, Materials, and Thermal Management Systems. The Triton Hopper study will be the first real definition of a \xd4frozen gas rock' powered hopper, since prior ISRU fuel concepts were fed with atmospheric gas. The Triton Hopper would be a pathfinder in combining ISRU acqui- sition and science, since the sampling system doubles as the propellant production system. Addressing the challenge of autonomous hopper exploration in an extremely cold outer solar system environment, Triton Hopper serves as a pathfinder for other exploration of the frozen surfaces of icy moons such as Enceladus and Europa, as well as more distant objects such as Sedna, Charon, Centaurs, and Trans-Neptunian and Kuiper-belt objects.
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