Nuclear-powered spacecraft to explore Jupiter's moons

[semi-sentient]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/1....ap/index.html

It looks like we'll be exploring the icy moons afterall--only we won't be sending any probes down to the moons themselves ... just orbiting. Hopefully this will provide a spark for other countries to get involved with the exploration of Europa, Callista and Ganymede--assuming they have the technology.

[Alex W.]

I've been reading too much **/BA lately... I read this topic title as explode Jupiter's moons. :wink:

[Glom]

Good news.

[stelmosfire]

The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission has been in development for some time; here's the link to the JIMO homepage.

[kucharek]

I've been reading too much **/BA lately... I read this topic title as explode Jupiter's moons. :wink:

Please proceed to the YKYAABABBAW-thread... ;-)

[kucharek]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/12/09/jupiter.icymoons.ap/index.html

It looks like we'll be exploring the icy moons afterall--only we won't be sending any probes down to the moons themselves ... just orbiting. Hopefully this will provide a spark for other countries to get involved with the exploration of Europa, Callista and Ganymede--assuming they have the technology.

Hey c'mon, here in Europe, we came down from the trees a few years ago... ;-)
Beagle 2 is a European lander, a European Europa lander would be a nice thing.
And Huygens, who will drop onto Titan in a year is also built in Europe.
In both cases, the US gives them a lift, but well, that's what friends are for...

Harald

[kucharek]

The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, or Jimo,...

Wow, our first BABBler in space!

[kucharek]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jimo/



Ohhhh, please, three engine banks, the high gain more into the middle of the fuselage and the instrument section spherical.

Harald

PS: Uh, the science package is the stuff near the engines, the reactor is at the tip...

[daver]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jimo/
Ohhhh, please, three engine banks, the high gain more into the middle of the fuselage and the instrument section spherical.

Harald

PS: Uh, the science package is the stuff near the engines, the reactor is at the tip...

I would have expected a bigger radiator for the reactor, though.

[edit]
Oops, i see the radiator now; it shows up better on their web page. It'd be nifty if they could push the radiator back a ways and make it parabolic--they could get a huge antenna for radar mapping.

[Ilya]

I've been reading too much **/BA lately... I read this topic title as explode Jupiter's moons. :wink:

For a second, I misread it the same way...

Actually, I would not be at all surprised if some woowoo somewhere is claiming that already.

[Russell]

Hey Kucharek:
That thing would go much faster in it had a big block chevy in it.

[ToSeek]

More about the nuclear power part, from a Los Alamos press release.

[Glom]

Freedom for Fission.

[Bill Dunaway]

How much is this probe expected to cost? This program looks likely to run into massive cost overruns given it's physical size, the high controversy that will surround the first deep space nuclear reactor, and the new technologies that must be developed for it. It looks cool, but it could force NASA to cancel several less expensive science programs to pay for it.

[russ_watters]

So how exactly is this thing propelled? Same ion propulsion as DS1 except with nuclear power instead of solar power?

[Colt]

This looks pretty interesting guys. I'll have to look at it more in depth later. We should just send an Orion and drag the damn moon back here. :wink: -Colt

[Maksutov]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/12/09/jupiter.icymoons.ap/index.html

It looks like we'll be exploring the icy moons afterall--only we won't be sending any probes down to the moons themselves ... just orbiting. Hopefully this will provide a spark for other countries to get involved with the exploration of Europa, Callista and Ganymede--assuming they have the technology.

Hey c'mon, here in Europe, we came down from the trees a few years ago... ;-)
Beagle 2 is a European lander, a European Europa lander would be a nice thing.
And Huygens, who will drop onto Titan in a year is also built in Europe.
In both cases, the US gives them a lift, but well, that's what friends are for...

Harald

Re the European Europa lander, just please make sure you sterilize that thing completely. We wouldn't want to have the first manned expedition to Europa find there was nothing but fromage down there! #-o

[JohnOwens]

I've been reading too much **/BA lately... I read this topic title as explode Jupiter's moons. :wink:

For a second, I misread it the same way...

Actually, I would not be at all surprised if some woowoo somewhere is claiming that already.

A couple of decades ago or so, I still remember unwrapping a Christmas present from my parents, finding it to be a non-fiction work by (I believe) Isaac Asimov, and promptly (mis)reading the title as Exploding the Universe. That piqued my interest rather nicely.

[Betenoire]

Re the European Europa lander, just please make sure you sterilize that thing completely. We wouldn't want to have the first manned expedition to Europa find there was nothing but fromage down there! #-o

Out of respect (and fear) for the TBA, I'll avoid the obvious joke about US invasions and the French.

Wait... darn.

[kucharek]

Re the European Europa lander, just please make sure you sterilize that thing completely. We wouldn't want to have the first manned expedition to Europa find there was nothing but fromage down there! #-o

Maybe we should let the Swiss built (or at least clean) that thingy. The Swiss are even more tidy than the Germans ;-)

Harald

[JohnOwens]

Re the European Europa lander, just please make sure you sterilize that thing completely. We wouldn't want to have the first manned expedition to Europa find there was nothing but fromage down there! #-o

Maybe we should let the Swiss built (or at least clean) that thingy. The Swiss are even more tidy than the Germans ;-)

Harald

Oh, so you want it made of Swiss cheese? I think your idea is full of holes.

Everyone knows it would be made of green cheese.

[majic]

How much is this probe expected to cost? This program looks likely to run into massive cost overruns given it's physical size, the high controversy that will surround the first deep space nuclear reactor, and the new technologies that must be developed for it. It looks cool, but it could force NASA to cancel several less expensive science programs to pay for it.

Yes I can only fear the floks of tree hugging hippies protesting en masse with slogans like "keep jupiters moons clean for future generations!" or "Nuclear ? use the energy of the wind!" or something else silly, unpredictable and illogical. ,

[ToSeek]

Getting help with the nukes from the Navy

[clemmentine]

kucharek wrote:

Hey c'mon, here in Europe, we came down from the trees a few years ago...
Beagle 2 is a European lander, a European Europa lander would be a nice thing.
And Huygens, who will drop onto Titan in a year is also built in Europe.
In both cases, the US gives them a lift, but well, that's what friends are for...

yes, an European Europa lander would be really nice. now that ESA's got Mars Express and Rosetta going (or almost going), hopefully they're getting the hang of this. can't wait for Huygens to get to Titan. Beagle 2 hitched a ride on ESA's Mars Express BTW.


Bill Dunaway wrote:

How much is this probe expected to cost? This program looks likely to run into massive cost overruns given it's physical size, the high controversy that will surround the first deep space nuclear reactor, and the new technologies that must be developed for it. It looks cool, but it could force NASA to cancel several less expensive science programs to pay for it.

from what I've read, JIMO is becoming like a once-a-decade flagship mission (read: expensive). I'd like to see the mission fly, but not at the expense of missions like New Horizons. hopefully this won't end up like Cassini/CRAF.


russ_watters wrote:

So how exactly is this thing propelled? Same ion propulsion as DS1 except with nuclear power instead of solar power?

looks like it. please correct me if I'm wrong, don't they call it NEP (nuclear electric propulsion)? DS1 is SEP (solar electric propulsion).


Colt wrote:

We should just send an Orion and drag the damn moon back here. -Colt

now that's an outside-the-box idea! why go there when you can bring it here?


- clemmentine

[Maksutov]

Getting help with the nukes from the Navy

I was involved with Naval Reactors for 13 years. If NR still has the core competencies they and their contractors had when I left the program back in the early '90s, the power unit supplied should exceed all specifications and the lifetime of the spacecraft itself by a significant factor.

[ToSeek]

NASA press release:

NASA Releases Mission Requirements For Proposed Jupiter Mission

NASA has issued its mission design requirements to three industry teams for a proposed mission to Jupiter and its three icy moons. The requirements are also the first product formulated by NASA's new Office of Exploration Systems in Washington.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter is a spacecraft with an ambitious proposed mission that would orbit three planet-sized moons of Jupiter -- Callisto, Ganymede and Europa -- that may harbor vast oceans beneath their icy surfaces. The mission would be powered by a nuclear reactor and launched sometime in the next decade.

Associate Administrator retired Rear Adm. Craig E. Steidle of NASA's Office of Exploration Systems said, "The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter requirements represent our new way of doing business, tracing exploration strategies to the technology maturation programs that will enable this exciting mission and the other missions that make up Project Constellation."

The Request for Proposal was released this week to the three previously qualified industry teams led by Boeing, Huntington Beach, Calif.; Lockheed Martin, Denver; and Northrop Grumman, Redondo Beach, Calif. These three companies are currently working under study contracts investigating conceptual designs for the mission. The proposals are due July 16, 2004.

The scope of the initial contract is to co-design the spacecraft through the preliminary design with the government team. A contract modification will be issued after preliminary design to implement the design, to integrate and test the spacecraft and to integrate the spacecraft with the reactor module and mission module. JPL would be responsible for delivering the mission module, which would include instruments procured competitively via a NASA announcement of opportunity. The launch vehicle will be supplied by NASA. The Department of Energy's Office of Naval Reactors would be responsible for the reactor module. To ensure the technologies demonstrated are consistent and coordinated with the Vision for Space Exploration, Project Constellation is managed within the Office of Exploration Systems.

"Although the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission may not launch until the next decade, the study of revolutionary new technologies in spacecraft design is underway in the areas of power conversion and heat rejection, electric propulsion, radiation hardened electronics and materials, and telecommunications," said Karla Clark, industry studies lead and deep space avionics project manager for the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter Mission.

Three cross-cutting science themes identified by the NASA-chartered science definition team would drive the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter science investigations. The themes are to evaluate the degree to which subsurface oceans are present on these worlds; to study the chemical composition of the moons, including organic materials, and the surface processes that affect them; and to scrutinize the entire Jupiter system, particularly the interactions between Jupiter and the moons' atmospheres and interiors.

"The scientists have told us what they want," said John Casani, project manager for the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission at JPL. "When you consider the five-to-eight year trip to Jupiter, going from one moon to the next, not only flying by but orbiting each moon, this will require a unique nuclear power and electric propulsion system. The large amount of power required for electric propulsion could be used in orbit to power a significantly enhanced suite of instruments not even conceivable with previous power systems."

The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission is part of NASA's Project Prometheus, a program studying a series of initiatives to develop power systems and technologies for space exploration. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, managed by JPL, would be the first NASA mission utilizing nuclear electric propulsion, which would enable the spacecraft to orbit each of these icy worlds to perform extensive investigations of their makeup, history and potential for sustaining life. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission for NASA's Office of Exploration Systems, Washington, D.C.

For more information visit:
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/prometheus.htm
or:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jimo/index.cfm

-end-

[ToSeek]

Boeing submits design proposal for Jupiter probe

Boeing has delivered its conceptual design proposal for the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), a spacecraft that could become the nation's first nuclear-fission-powered exploration vehicle with technologies applicable to future Mars and lunar missions.

The JIMO reactor would provide more than 100 times more usable onboard power than has been available to previous science probes and demonstrate nuclear reactors can be operated safely and reliably in space to provide electrical power needed for propulsion and scientific exploration.

[Joe87]

If they are going all the way out to Jupiter, why don't they also take a look at Io? :-?

[Karl]

If it lasts long enough in the radiation environment, it probably will, but the radiation at Io is so intense that making it a mission requirement might make the entire proposition impossible.

A higher priority is a close look at Europa.

[Yruc]

How much is this probe expected to cost? This program looks likely to run into massive cost overruns given it's physical size, the high controversy that will surround the first deep space nuclear reactor, and the new technologies that must be developed for it. It looks cool, but it could force NASA to cancel several less expensive science programs to pay for it.

Cassini is Nuclear powered as was the Mars Viking Landers and I am sure there were more.