Europa Clipper Development, Build And Prelaunch Activities Options

[volcanopele]

I will note that the current tour SPICE kernel is on the NAIF kernel site. If you know how to use something like spiceypy, one could create a python script that gives you all the flybys.......

[StargazeInWonder]

Here is a map that aggregates all of the ground tracks, which displayed an impressively dense grid-like coverage of the entire surface, though with some concentrations reflecting the realities of orbital geometry.

https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2023/pdf/1518.pdf

It notes, at a high level, that the early orbits will focus on the anti-Jupiter hemisphere and then the later orbits will focus on the sub-Jupiter hemisphere.

Other commentary is here.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/04/ec-jpl-interview/

https://europa.nasa.gov/mission/timeline/

Because the main mission coverage is a bit uneven spatially, there's the prospect that features that seem intriguing given coverage from the main mission could be the targets of specific focus during any possible extended mission. This will introduce luck and chance as factors – will there be uniquely interesting features that just happen to be located near/far from the closest ground tracks, and how will the spacecraft hold up as radiation damage takes its toll? I think the subtext is that potential targets for any future landers will be of prime interest, and only time will tell if there are uniquely promising locations for a lander (as on Mars) or if there are, effectively, many areas that are more or less equally intriguing. We already know that there are isolated areas with more recent exposure to subsurface activity than is typical, but we don't have sufficient coverage from Galileo to characterize what might be the best locations.

The overlap with JUICE is important context, should both missions function perfectly. This would make EC's coverage of Ganymede and JUICE's coverage of Europa seemingly less important, but the instrument suites are not exactly identical, so perhaps those differences will be highlighted by circumstances where each observes the "other" moon. And it highlights the importance of the observations of Callisto, which is not the primary target of either mission, but will be visited a total of 21 times by these two orbiters, which would seem to offer the potential for excellent and definitive coverage (Galileo flew by Callisto only 3 times in the primary missions and 8 times in all). In fact, both EC and JUICE will each fly by Callisto more times than Galileo ever did.