The First Europa Lander, What can be done first, cheapest & best? |
The First Europa Lander, What can be done first, cheapest & best? |
Dec 31 2005, 12:08 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
I think that many people in this forum would agree that somebody's going to have to land on Europa someday before the rather elaborate schemes to penetrate the outer ice layer will ever fly, if for no other reason than to get some relevant ground truth before committing to such an elaborate, expensive, and risky mission.
EO seems to have ruled out any surface science package for that mission (though it would be nice to change their minds! ), but I think that there is a valid requirement at some point to directly assess the surface properties of Europa in an inexpensive yet creative way. Some candidate instrument payloads might be: 1. A sonar transducer/receiver set embedded within a penetrometer to determine crust density and examine the uniformity of the ice layer within the operational radius of the instrument (looking for cracks and holes, in other words). 2. A conductivity sensor again embedded inside a penetrometer to measure the native salinity of the surrounding material and possibly derive some constraints on the composition of metallic salts in the European crust (saltiness has a major effect on ice properties, in addition to the obvious need to derive the salt content of any underlying ocean). 3. A seismometer for all sorts of reasons. How does this sound? Any critiques, additions, or subtractions? I omitted a surface imager not only because of bandwidth/extra complexity considerations but also because it seems desirable to penetrate the crust in order to minimize as much as possible reading any contaminants from Io during surface measurements. The orbiter data could be used to sense and subtract this from the penetrometer readings. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Dec 10 2011, 12:34 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 311 Joined: 31-August 05 From: Florida & Texas, USA Member No.: 482 |
JEO (Jupiter Europa Orbiter) launch in 2020 land in 2026! let's light this candle!
"NASA is considering dropping two robotic landers on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa..." http://news.yahoo.com/jupiters-moon-europa...-212201869.html |
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Dec 10 2011, 03:33 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2173 Joined: 28-December 04 From: Florida, USA Member No.: 132 |
let's light this candle! I take it this is a vote for an orbiter mission over a lander mission. While the lander mission is exciting, the much longer lived and broader ( multiple moon flybys) orbiter mission is more interesting and will provide plenty of excitement in its own right. |
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Dec 10 2011, 07:56 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
Agreed that a broad reconnaissance would be preferable. But a short lived lander with a similar mission scope to MSL might well be able to find enough through detailed in-situ analysis as to make the case for a super-duper flagship very strong indeed, whereas an orbital only mission might merely find suggestive/ambiguous evidence.
Might being the operative word of course... |
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