HR: 12:05h
AN: P52A-08 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Europa Explorer: A Mission to Explore Europa and Investigate Its Habitability
AU: * Clark, K B
EM: karla.b.clark@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109,
AU: Pappalardo, R T
EM: robert.pappalardo@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109,
AU: Greeley, R
EM: greeley@asu.edu
AF: Arizona State University, Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287,
AB: Europa is the astrobiological archetype for icy satellite habitability, with a warm, salty, water ocean with plausible chemical energy sources. It is also a geophysical wonderland of interrelated ice shell processes that are intimately related to the ocean and tides, and of complex interactions among its interior, surface, atmosphere, and particles and fields environments. In 2007, NASA commissioned a study of a flagship-class mission to Europa, with the aim of launching as early as 2015. The difficulty of this type of mission, primarily due to the propulsive requirements and Jupiter's trapped radiation, led to many previous studies which investigated various approaches to meeting the science objectives. The Europa Explorer is a mature orbiter concept to explore Europa and investigate its habitability, fulfilling objectives laid out by the National Research Council's Planetary Science Decadal Survey. The mission examines Europa's ocean, ice shell, chemistry, geology, external environment, and neighborhood. With a nominal launch in June 2015, the flight system arrives at Jupiter in 6 years using a Venus- Earth-Earth Gravity Assist trajectory. It would orbit Jupiter for 2 years using gravity assists of the icy Galilean satellites to lower its energy, providing the opportunity for significant Jupiter system science. It would then enter Europa orbit at an altitude of 100-200 km, where it would perform science investigations for 1 year. A campaign- based operations scenario has been developed which permits return of 5.4 Tbits of science data beginning in July 2021, and emphasizing the highest priority Europa science objectives early in the orbital phase of the mission. The baseline mission concept includes 11 instruments that address high-priority investigations while providing the flexibility to respond to discoveries. A less ambitious mission has also been evaluated which has 8 instruments and returns about a third of the data with 6 months of orbital operations at Europa. The radiation design approach has been independently reviewed and validated, and a statistical lifetime prediction method has been developed. Past technology investments have reduced mission risk, making the Europa Explorer mission ready to move forward in order to address the high-priority astrobiological and geophysical objectives outlined by the Decadal Survey.
DE: 6220 Jupiter
DE: 6221 Europa
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting