Abstract
NASA is planning to launch a spacecraft on a mission to the Jovian moon Europa, in order to conduct a detailed reconnaissance and investigation of its habitability. The spacecraft would orbit Jupiter and perform a detailed science investigation of Europa, utilizing a number of science instruments including an ice-penetrating radar to determine the icy shell thickness and presence of subsurface oceans. The spacecraft would be exposed to harsh radiation and extreme temperature environments. To meet mission objectives, the spacecraft power subsystem is being architected and designed to operate efficiently, and with a high degree of reliability.
Highlights
The combination of harsh radiation, low temperature (30 K) environments, and distance from the sun (5 AU to 5.5 AU) creates challenges on design and implementation of the spacecraft and instrument hardware
The power subsystem architecture design approach involves implementing a robust single-fault tolerant design with small fault containment regions, based on a similar approach used for the Cassini mission to Saturn
The number of cells in series was set by the topology of the power management electronics to deliver the most power at the end of the mission in the most severe environment
Summary
The planned Europa mission’s main focus is to execute an in-depth science investigation of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa shown in Fig. 1 [1]. The moon has shown evidence of a liquid water ocean underneath the unknown thickness of icy surface. The NASA-selected instruments intend to characterize Europa by producing high-resolution images and surface composition maps. An ice-penetrating radar intends to determine the crust thickness, and a magnetometer would measure the magnetic field strength and direction to further help scientists determine ocean depth and salinity. The nine NASA-selected instruments that would be used for the Europa mission are the following [2]: 1) Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS). 4) Europa Imaging System (EIS) 5) Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) 6) Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System Exploration/Europa (MASPEX) 8) Ultraviolet Spectrograph/Europa (UVS) 9) Surface Dust Mass Analyser (SUDA)
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