Is Europa really the "highest priority" of the community?, Cleave said it was at LPSC? |
Is Europa really the "highest priority" of the community?, Cleave said it was at LPSC? |
Mar 15 2006, 05:50 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2542 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
From Emily's LPSC blog: "Bob Pappalardo would not sit down until he got Cleave to acknowledge that Europa is the consensus highest priority of the planetary science community."
Cleave was obviously poorly prepared for this session, but I don't see that this acknowledgement is either meaningful or particularly accurate. If Europa were the "highest priority" of the PS community as a whole, then one might wonder why we were spending all this money on Mars. I could easily imagine that Europa is the highest priority of the outer planets community, but frankly I was surprised when Europa Orbiter appeared in the '07 budget (presumably the result of some serious lobbying on someone's part.) It was pretty obvious to me then that there would be no money for it, especially in the aftermath of JPL running the old EO project into the ground with cost overruns and engineering upscopes. (And JIMO is best forgotten.) Don't get me wrong, I would love to be involved with a Europa mission (we did what I think was a good proposal design for EO) but I don't see either the money or the political support being there in the near term. I know it's frustrating, but one has to be realistic, and it might help to avoid the aura of entitlement that I perceive is building in some parts of the community (not referring to you, Bob). Of course, I am just a lowly engineer. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Mar 21 2006, 03:53 AM
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John Rehling's idea for Europa Orbiter just might be workable -- IF they want it badly enough.
EO, since it will now use a VEEGA gravity assist to get to Jupiter, will have a hell of a lot of payload margin -- about 340 kg worth (after it gets into Europa orbit), which is why they're considering a lander. An alternative use being very seriously considered for at least some of that mass margin is to instead increase its shielding, since EO can extend its lifetime in Europa orbit (currently 3 months) by 1 month for every 100 kg more shielding. An alternative use for that shielding could be to allow it to make a few close Io flybys before entering Europa orbit. However, this might also require additional propellant, depending on the design of its Jupiter-orbiting phase (the plan for EO, from the start, has been to have it make a gravity-assist flyby of Ganymede to help brake into Jupiter orbit, instead of using Io as Galileo did). It's also true that the larger instrument payload they now plan for EO would be well-designed to study Io as well -- high-res and medium-res cameras, near-IR and mass spectrometers (and maybe X-ray and UV ones too), a thermal mapper, fields and particles instruments. |
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