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Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter
The ''Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter'' (JIMO) was a proposed NASA spacecraft designed to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. The main target was Europa, where an ocean of liquid water may harbor alien life. Ganymede and Callisto, which are now thought to also have liquid, salty oceans beneath their icy surfaces, were also targets of interest for the probe. The JIMO spacecraft Throughout JIMO's main voyage to the Jupiter moons, it was to be propelled by an ion propulsion system via either the High Power Electric Propulsion or NEXIS engine, and powered by a small fission reactor. A Brayton power conversion system would convert reactor heat into electricity. Providing a thousand times the electrical output of conventional solar- or radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)-based power systems, the reactor was expected to open up opportunities like flying a full scale ice-penetrating radar system and providing a strong, high-bandwidth data transmitter. Using electric propul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined and slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. Its diameter is 11 times that of Earth and a tenth that of the Sun. Jupiter orbits the Sun at a distance of , with an orbital period of . It is the List of brightest natural objects in the sky, third-brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky, after the Moon and Venus, and has been observed since prehistoric times. Its name derives from that of Jupiter (god), Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman religion. Jupiter was the first of the Sun's planets to form, and its inward migration during the primordial phase of the Solar System affected much of the formation history of the other planets. Jupiter's atmosphere consists of 76% hydrogen and 24% helium by mass, with a denser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brayton Cycle
The Brayton cycle, also known as the Joule cycle, is a thermodynamic cycle that describes the operation of certain heat engines that have air or some other gas as their working fluid. It is characterized by isentropic process, isentropic compression and expansion, and isobaric process, isobaric heat addition and rejection, though practical engines have adiabatic process, adiabatic rather than isentropic steps. The most common current application is in airbreathing jet engines and gas turbine engines. The engine cycle is named after George Brayton (1830–1892), the American engineer, who developed the Brayton Ready Motor in 1872, using a piston compressor and piston expander. An engine using the cycle was originally proposed and patented by Englishman John Barber (engineer), John Barber in 1791, using a reciprocating compressor and a turbine expander. There are two main types of Brayton cycles: closed and open. In a closed cycle, the working gas stays inside the engine. Heat i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems
Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) is a division of the Boeing Company based in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. The division builds military airplanes, rotorcraft, and missiles, as well as space systems for both commercial and military customers, including satellites, spacecraft, and rockets. It was formerly known as Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), which was formed in 2002 by combining the former "Military Aircraft and Missile Systems" and "Space and Communications" divisions. The group that brought together major names in aerospace; Boeing Military Airplane Company; Hughes Satellite Systems; Hughes Helicopters (the civilian helicopter line was divested as MD Helicopters); Piasecki Helicopter (subsequently known as Boeing Vertol and Boeing Helicopters); the McDonnell division of McDonnell Douglas; and the former North American Aviation division of Rockwell International. Boeing Defense, Space & Security made Boeing the third-largest defense contract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North Bethesda, Maryland, United States. As of January 2022, Lockheed Martin employs approximately 121,000 employees worldwide, including about 60,000 engineers and scientists. Reports from 2024 estimate that Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) holds a market cap of around $139.7 billion. Lockheed Martin is one of the largest companies in the aerospace, military support, security, and technologies industry. It was the world's largest defense contractor by revenue for fiscal year 2014.POC Top 20 Defence Contractors of 2014 . Retrieved: July 2015 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrobiology
Astrobiology (also xenology or exobiology) is a scientific field within the List of life sciences, life and environmental sciences that studies the abiogenesis, origins, Protocell, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe by investigating its deterministic conditions and contingent events. As a discipline, astrobiology is founded on the premise that life may exist beyond Earth. Research in astrobiology comprises three main areas: the study of planetary habitability, habitable environments in the Solar System and beyond, the search for planetary biosignatures of past or present extraterrestrial life, and the study of the Abiogenesis, origin and Protocell, early evolution of life on Earth. The field of astrobiology has its origins in the 20th century with the advent of space exploration and the discovery of exoplanets. Early astrobiology research focused on the search for extraterrestrial life and the study of the potential for life to exist on other pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planetary Habitability
Planetary habitability is the measure of a planet's or a natural satellite's potential to Abiogenesis, develop and sustain an environment hospitable to life. Life may be abiogenesis, generated directly on a planet or satellite endogenously. Research suggests that life may also be transferred from one body to another, through a hypothetical process known as panspermia. Environments do not need to contain life to be considered habitable nor are accepted habitable zones (HZ) the only areas in which life might arise. As the existence of life beyond Earth is not known, planetary habitability is largely an extrapolation of conditions on Earth and the characteristics of the Sun and Solar System which appear favorable to life's flourishing. Of particular interest are those factors that have sustained complex, multicellular organisms on Earth and not just simpler, unicellular creatures. Research and theory in this regard is a component of a number of natural sciences, such as astronomy, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar System" and "solar system" structures in theinaming guidelines document. The name is commonly rendered in lower case ('solar system'), as, for example, in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' an''Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary''. is the gravitationally bound Planetary system, system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. It Formation and evolution of the Solar System, formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc. The Sun is a typical star that maintains a hydrostatic equilibrium, balanced equilibrium by the thermonuclear fusion, fusion of hydrogen into helium at its stellar core, core, releasing this energy from its outer photosphere. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radionuclide
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transferred to one of its electrons to release it as a conversion electron; or used to create and emit a new particle (alpha particle or beta particle) from the nucleus. During those processes, the radionuclide is said to undergo radioactive decay. These emissions are considered ionizing radiation because they are energetic enough to liberate an electron from another atom. The radioactive decay can produce a stable nuclide or will sometimes produce a new unstable radionuclide which may undergo further decay. Radioactive decay is a random process at the level of single atoms: it is impossible to predict when one particular atom will decay. However, for a collection of atoms of a single nu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Particle Radiation
Particle radiation is the radiation of energy by means of fast-moving subatomic particles. Particle radiation is referred to as a particle beam if the particles are all moving in the same direction, similar to a light beam. Due to the wave–particle duality, all moving particles also have wave character. Higher energy particles more easily exhibit particle characteristics, while lower energy particles more easily exhibit wave characteristics. Types and production Particles can be electrically charged or uncharged: Particle radiation can be emitted by an unstable atomic nucleus (via radioactive decay), or it can be produced from some other kind of nuclear reaction. Many types of particles may be emitted: *protons and other hydrogen nuclei stripped of their electrons *positively charged alpha particles (α), equivalent to a helium-4 nucleus *helium ions at high energy levels * HZE ions, which are nuclei heavier than helium *positively or negatively charged beta particles (hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hall Effect Thruster
In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall-effect thruster (HET) is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall-effect thrusters (based on the discovery by Edwin Hall) are sometimes referred to as Hall thrusters or Hall-current thrusters. Hall-effect thrusters use a magnetic field to limit the electrons' axial motion and then use them to ionize propellant, efficiently accelerate the ions to produce thrust, and neutralize the ions in the plume. The Hall-effect thruster is classed as a moderate specific impulse (1,600s) space propulsion technology and has benefited from considerable theoretical and experimental research since the 1960s. Hall thrusters operate on a variety of propellants, the most common being xenon and krypton. Other propellants of interest include argon, bismuth, iodine, magnesium, zinc and adamantane. Hall thrusters are able to accelerate their exhaust to effective exhaust velocity, speeds between 10 and 80 km/s (1,00 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data
Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted formally. A datum is an individual value in a collection of data. Data are usually organized into structures such as tables that provide additional context and meaning, and may themselves be used as data in larger structures. Data may be used as variables in a computational process. Data may represent abstract ideas or concrete measurements. Data are commonly used in scientific research, economics, and virtually every other form of human organizational activity. Examples of data sets include price indices (such as the consumer price index), unemployment rates, literacy rates, and census data. In this context, data represent the raw facts and figures from which useful information can be extracted. Data are collected using technique ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
