Over the next decades, NASA's planned solar system exploration missions are targeting planets, moons and small
bodies, where spacecraft would be expected to encounter diverse extreme environmental (EE) conditions throughout
their mission phases. These EE conditions are often coupled. For instance, near the surface of Venus and in the deep
atmospheres of giant planets, probes would experience high temperatures and pressures. In the Jovian system low
temperatures are coupled with high radiation. Other environments include thermal cycling, and corrosion. Mission
operations could also introduce extreme conditions, due to atmospheric entry heat flux and deceleration. Some of these
EE conditions are not unique to space missions; they can be encountered by terrestrial assets from the fields of defense,
oil and gas, aerospace, and automotive industries. In this paper we outline the findings of NASA's Extreme
Environments Study Team, including discussions on state of the art and emerging capabilities related to environmental
protection, tolerance and operations in EEs. We will also highlight cross cutting EE mitigation technologies, for
example, between high g-load tolerant impactors for Europa and instrumented projectiles on Earth; high temperature
electronics sensors on Jupiter deep probes and sensors inside jet engines; and pressure vessel technologies for Venus
probes and sea bottom monitors. We will argue that synergistic development programs between these fields could be
highly beneficial and cost effective for the various agencies and industries. Some of these environments, however, are
specific to space and thus the related technology developments should be spearheaded by NASA with collaboration from
industry and academia.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.