Instrumentation for Spacecraft-to-Spacecraft Radio Science Observations of Jupiter and Satellites

Details Instrumentation for Spacecraft-to-Spacecraft Radio Science Observations of Jupiter and Satellites Instrumentation for Spacecraft-to-Spacecraft Radio Science Observations of Jupiter and Satellites

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.4904a&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #49.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1003

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Scientific paper

Investigations of planetary atmospheres and surfaces via radio occultation and scattering techniques have been successfully conducted on many planets and several large satellites in the solar system using one-way downlink from a spacecraft to a ground station. Limitations on the received SNR or geometrical coverage can be overcome with alternate observation configurations. Uplink observations where a signal is transmitted from a ground station and received by the spacecraft can have an SNR advantage of almost three orders of magnitude. Spacecraft-to-spacecraft observations can also have significant SNR advantage over the traditional one-way downlink technique and can yield improved geometrical coverage. These have never been carried out before because a special radio science receiver is required onboard the spacecraft. One type of this receiver is onboard the New Horizons mission for an uplink occultation of Pluto. Another prototype receiver on MRO has been used to demonstrate a spacecraft-to-spacecraft occultation with the Odyssey spacecraft. A new digital open-loop receiver specifically designed to meet the requirements of an occultation experiment has been prototyped for flight on the EJSM missions to the Jovian system. This instrument is based on heritage of the MRO receiver with significant improvements and can be used to achieve multiple objectives, all of scientific interest to the community and all using the crosslink or uplink configurations. They include: (1) occultations of the atmosphere and ionosphere of Jupiter, (2) occultations of the tenuous atmospheres and ionospheres of the Jovian satellites, (3) occultations of the tenuous Jovian rings, and (4) bistatic scattering from surfaces of the satellites. Studies are underway to determine the appropriate wavelengths of the radio links and the design of the onboard receiver, including the front-end down-converters, the required antennas, and the baseband digital signal processor configuration. This paper will discuss the potential achievable scientific investigations with the proposed instrument.

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