科研之友
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摘要
Europa is one of the icy moons of Jupiter and the possibility of an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust makes it one of the most fascinating destinations for exploration in the solar system. NASA's Europa Multiple Flyby Mission (EMFM, formerly Europa Clipper) is slated to visit the icy moon in a timeframe near the year 2022 to study the habitability of Europa. CubeSats carried along by the primary mission can supplement the measurements made, at a relatively low cost, and with the added benefits of involving students at universities in this challenging endeavor. Further, such a mission holds the key to extending the applicability of CubeSats to interplanetary missions. In this paper, we present the design of the Europa Radiation and Dust Observation Satellite (ERDOS), a 3U CubeSat designed to be deployed by the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission to carry out measurements of the radiation and dust environment, before impacting Europa's surface. We present a detailed design, for a CubeSat-based secondary mission, and discuss the science goals that may be accomplished by such a mission. Further, we discuss results from a comprehensive analysis of various engineering challenges associated with an interplanetary CubeSat mission, such as radiation shielding and thermal environment control. Our results show that a short duration CubeSat-based flyby mission is feasible when the CubeSat is carried on board the primary mission until the,Jovian system is reached. Such a flyby mission can provide important supplementary information to the primary mission about Europa's environment at a closer range and lead to a substantial increase in scientific knowledge about surface processes on Europa.
- 出版日期2017-7
