aérobot

CONT: La mission prévoit d'envoyer un aérobot sur Mars pour étudier la présence d'eau et de vie. Cette déclaration de mission a deux objectifs distincts : l'un technologique : démontrer la réussite du déploiement d'un ballon solaire sur Mars, l'autre scientifique : faire fonctionner la charge utile qui recherchera de l'eau et de la vie sur la planète rouge.

CONT: Agencies working for NASA use this term for a lighter-than-air aircraft designed to explore the planets. An aerobot is a helium-filled balloon fitted with heaters that are powered by solar cells. During the day, solar energy will heat the helium and give it extra buoyancy; at night, the balloon will drop to lower altitudes or even touch the ground. A limitation of the design is that its movements cannot be fully controlled, though it may have some ability to dictate its altitude, perhaps through dropping ballast, releasing gas or managing its temperature. A big advantage of this design is that it doesn't need fuel, which is expensive to transport and which runs out all too soon. Unlike satellites, aerobots fly in the atmosphere, so allowing experiments to be carried out on its chemistry. They can also view and record the ground from much lower altitudes than is possible with satellites. NASA plans to send a device of this sort to Mars in 2003, and possibly later to Titan, Venus and Jupiter.