JOVE - Jupiter Orbiter (1967) Options

[gndonald]

With Juno approaching it's launch year, I thought it might be worthwhile to look at an earlier design for a Jupiter Polar Orbiter.

JOVE (Jupiter Orbiting Vehicle for Exploration) was designed by faculty of the University of Auburn (Alabama) in the mid-late 1960s as part of a NASA sponsored systems engineering course.

The proposed spacecraft was a 3.6 metric tonne orbiter that would have been launched by a Saturn V sometime between 1975-1980. After a voyage lasting between 800 to 900 days the spacecraft would be inserted into an elliptical polar orbit of Jupiter with a closest approach of no lower than 7 Jupiter radii, after an initial period of mesurement this would be reduced to no lower than 4 Jupiter radii.

To meet the mission objectives of measuring the planets temperature and geomagnetic properties, the spacecraft would carry the following instrument types:

1. Solar Wind/Flare detectors
2. Cosmic Ray detectors
3. Micrometeorite detectors
4. Magnetometers
5. Trapped radiation detectors
6. Radiometers & photometers
7. UV/Visible/IR Spectrographs
8. Wide (10º) & Narrow (1º) angle television cameras. (Resolution at 7 Jupiter Radii Wide angle (150km), Narrow Angle (35km), at 4 Jupiter Radii. 70km & 18km respectively.)

Power was to be supplyed by eight RTGs supplying a total of 640w.

Perhaps of interest to the discussion on the value of cameras on Juno is this quote from the JOVE report:

The use of television greatly increases the data storage problem but this is justified by the greater resolution that is obtainable over Earth-based telescopes, as well as the favorable public relations effect of "pictures" of Jupiter.

Something I feel is as valid now as it was back then.

See: JOVE, Jupiter orbiting vehicle for exploration. Volume 1 - Mission and system study, Final report (15.1mb)

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[machi]

Thanks!