Day: December 23, 2007

Daedalus Component Masses… part 2

(all masses in kg)

PROPELLANT SYSTEM
1st Stage 47400000.00 4228190.00
Helium-3 Fuel 27600000.00 2nd Stage Helium-3 Fuel 2450000.00
Deuterium Fuel 18400000.00 Deuterium Fuel 1630000.00
Insulation Insulation
Fuel Tanks 31500.00 Fuel Tanks 19500.00
LH2 Tanks 407.00 Manoeuvre Tanks 460.00
LH2 Tanks 360.00
Fuel Tanks 98500.00 Fuel Tanks 8870.00
Uncommitted Mass (V.O.) 1300000.00 Uncommitted Mass (V.O.) 119000.00
Total= 5.16E+07
PAYLOAD BAY 507000.00
Committed Bay Structure 50000.00
Sensing and Communications (V.O.) 110000.00
Subprobes(V.O.) 245000.00
Service Wardens (V.O.) 45000.00
Shield Cloud (V.O.) 5000.00
Dust Bugs (V.O.) 2000.00
Beryllium Payload Shield 50000.00
TOTAL MASS ESTIMATE 54670415.61

Daedalus Component Masses… part 1

Daedalus Starprobe Component Data…

(all masses in kg)

DAEDALUS
Starship Component  Masses (kg)
PROPULSION SYSTEM 1544427.51
1st Stage 1229636.60 2nd Stage 314790.91
Reaction Chamber(s) 219000.00 Reaction Chamber(s) 22100.00
Excitation Field Coils 125000.00 Excitation Field Coils 43600.00
Titanium Coil Supports 241000.00 Titanium Coil Supports 90600.00
Ignition Assembly 307000.00 Ignition Assembly 81000.00
Charging Circuit Supports 21000.00 Charging Circuit Supports 5900.00
Pellet Injector Pellet Injector
Capacitors 29600.00 Capacitors 790.00
Al Superconducting Coils 36.60 Al Superconducting Coils 0.91
Uncommitted Mass (V.O.) 287000.00 Uncommitted Mass (V.O.) 70800.00
THRUST STRUCTURE 75000.00
1st Stage 50000.00 2nd Stage 25000.00
SERVICE BAY 915798.10
1st Stage 740468.00 2nd Stage 175330.10
Core 645000.00 Core 132000.00
Thermal Shielding Thermal Shielding
Gold 578.00 Gold 55.10
Rhodium 2890.00 Rhodium 275.00
Iconel Base 2000.00 Iconel Base 2000.00
Power Supplies Power Supplies
Buffer Capacitors 30000.00 Buffer Capacitors 3000.00
Nuclear Reactors (V.O.) 60000.00 Nuclear Reactors (V.O.) 38000.00
Total 9.16E+05

Mountains of Titan, not so Titanic…

Titan, as suspected, has some peaks, though Australian scale – i.e. about 2 km altitude. That’s a fair climb here in Australia, where our highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, is only 2,228 metres high. Miniscule compared to other continents. Of course because Titan’s gravity is so low the peak is “only” 305 metres in Earth-gravity scale.

Mountains Discovered On Titan, Saturn’s Largest Moon

Brigham Young University release on the discovery…

BYU scientist leads discovery of mountains on Saturn’s largest moon

…and the abstract describing the work in Icarus…

DOI link

…can you imagine free-climbing such a peak? Should be fairly “easy” in a suitably light-weight cryo-suit. With a rebreather system – just freeze CO2 out at ambient temperatures and rewarm with a small methane-oxygen flame – the breathing gear would be lightweight.