Planetary scientist says: Focus on Europa |
Planetary scientist says: Focus on Europa |
Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Feb 12 2007, 11:26 PM
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Planetary scientist says: Focus on Europa
By Tony Fitzpatrick Washington University in St. Louis News & Information February 7, 2007 |
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Jun 8 2007, 03:01 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
I only have one basic question, but upon it unfortunately hangs the feasibility of any such mission.
How are you planning on dealing with the intense radiation environment at Io? It's not just a matter of using hardened circuitry -- CCDs in imagers, which have to have a visual path to what they image, will deteriorate quickly at Io. Everything not encased in massive (and I mean that word literally) shielding is going to fail very, very quickly in Ionian orbit. Another issue is the fact that it takes continual maneuvering to remain in a stable orbit around Io, because of the pulls of Mother Jupiter and sister Galileans. But that's a minor issue compared to the raditation environment issue. I agree, it sounds like exactly the kind of mission I'd like to see. But I really wonder if we have the technology to pull it off any time in the next 50 years. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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