Electrodynamic tether mission to a Low Jovian Orbit

Physics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

An electrodynamic tether mission at Jupiter, starting with capturing the spacecraft into a retrograde, equatorial, highly elliptical orbit at low perijove, is discussed. The tether would be a thin tape, 50 kilometers long and 0.05 mm thick, with a 12 minutes spin period. In a first phase, repeated application of propellantless Lorentz drag on the tape would progressively lower the apojove at near constant perijove. Under 20 perijove passes, with a total duration of 3 months and an accumulated radiation dose less than 1 Mrad Si behind 10 mm of Al shielding, would be required to take the spacecraft to a circular orbit at about 1.3 the Jupiter radius, below the Jovian radiation belts. Energy continuously generated at a load plugged in the tether circuit would be used for science data acquisition and transmission. In a second phase, once the spacecraft in circular orbit, current would be controlled to allow for a slow spiralling of the orbit over a period of several months, for surface and subsurface exploration of Jupiter, and magnetic and gravimetric measurements. Thermal and bowing/tensile-stress constraints on the tether operations are discussed. The effect of the Lorentz torque on the spin is also analyzed.

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