Artillery based explorers: A new architecture for regional planetary geology

Artillery based explorers (ABEs) are small impact-tolerant rockets that are launched from a platform landed on a celestial body. ABEs follow an approximately ballistic trajectory to a nearby site of scientific interest without an active landing system, and are single use only. Due to their high impact velocities, ABEs carry g-tolerant payloads that do not require the use of delicate robotics for sampling rock or soil materials. One advantage of using ABEs for regional exploration is the capability for accurate placement of instrumentation up to kilometers away from the launch site, in any direction. Their impact tolerance allows them to target steep or rugged terrain that may be inaccessible to rovers or aerial vehicles. With a fixed mass of propellant and no need for a guidance system, navigation to the target site amounts to specifying elevation and azimuth launch angles. ABEs can achieve ranges up to 10 km on Mars with impact velocities no greater than those of orbit-deployed penetrators that are currently under construction, or have flown in the past. Simple in form, this combination of artillery and planetary geology requires no fundamental new technology for development. Military rocketry analogs, the Deep Space 2 mission, and the Russian Mars-96 mission are used to demonstrate the feasibility of ABEs. Several example missions and payloads serve to illustrate the usefulness of this new architecture.