Radio-isotope versus solar power generation for an ESA mission to Jupiter/Europa
- Paper number
IAC-05-A3.2.A.07
- Author
Mr. Patrice Renard, EADS Astrium, France
- Coauthor
Dr. Peter Falkner, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Mr. Alessandro Atzei, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Dr. Charles Koeck, EADS Astrium, France
- Coauthor
Mr. Stephen Kemble, Astrium Ltd., United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Mr. Regnier Pascal, EADS Astrium, France
- Year
2005
- Abstract
The European Space Agency is currently studying the Jupiter Minisat Explorer (JME), one of its Technology Reference Studies (TRS). This activity is managed by the ESA Science Payload and Advanced Concepts Office and is performed in cooperation with EADS-Astrium. The TRSs are not part of the ESA science programme and complement ESA's current mission specific development programme in order to strategically plan the development of technologies that will enable potential future scientific missions. The JME focuses on the exploration of the Jovian system and particularly the discovery of its moon Europa. The JME study aims at three missions spaced in time by 6 years using pairs of minisats, dedicated to the demonstration of a subsurface ocean below Europa's icy crust as well as the study of the global topography and the composition of the (sub)surface. A first design iteration permitted to draw a feasible and coherent mission scenario for a launch in 2016-2020, where it was demonstrated that solar power generation could still be applicable at such distance from Sun, especially thanks to a drastic reduction of power needs in a highly integrated science payload. This work was presented at the last year IAC in Vancouver. However, Radio-isotope Power Systems (RPS) remain the favorite candidates for spacecraft power delivery in missions targeting the outer solar system. There exist national Research and Development programs to improve their performances and enable new discoveries. Therefore the present paper describes a critical comparison of future RPS applied on JMO with the original solar power generation initially designed. All system aspects are considered: interplanetary trajectory accounting for life-on-Earth protection, thermal control, power architecture, RPS implementation, mass at launch, satellite integration constraints and cost. In this complex environment, and although solar cells are reaching their capacity limits at Jupiter, it appears that both options offer the same mission capacity.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-A3.2.A.07.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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