On the Selection of Unmanned Probes and Launch Vehicles for Exploration of the Solar System

A model is developed for aiding in the selection of unmanned probes and launch vehicles to gather basic data on solar system phenomena. The aim is to determine optimum trade-offs, under the constraint of minimum mission objectives, among such factors as incremental mission accomplishments (kinds, quality and quantity of data), instrumentation parameters (weight, reliability, resolution accuracy, cost), trajectory parameters (trip time, energy requirement), and launch vehicle and upper stage parameters (payload weight, reliability redundancy, booster costs). Using plausible, but nonauthoritative cost and performance data, the model is applied to an example, and some tentative conclusions are drawn.