Planetary Object Geophysical Observer (POGO) and Its Unique Power System

摘要

Planetary Object Geophysical Observer (POGO) is asmall, M&M~®- shaped minor-body hopping lander (<10 kg and <7 W) with an integrated payload that is designed to operate in any landed orientation. It is deployed by a spacecraft orbiter that is a few kilometers off the surface of an asteroidor comet, depending on size of the small-body, and is designed to withstand bounces and rolls on a variety of regolith. POGO communicates with its orbiter via a rugged UHF loop antenna, enabling communication from any orientation and continuously transmits the data on a repeating loop with newly generateddata added to the loop. It is battery powered, allowing POGO to operate in sun or shade while its structure and thermal blankets create a thermal vault, permitting operation over a large range of temperatures. The power system on POGO is simple in design and unique in that it uses a boost converter with a voltage multiplier to charge large capacitors to fire its voice coil. POGO's mobility mechanism allows itto measure multiple locations on the small body surface by using the voice coil to hop in a "random walk".