Analysis and Implementation of Geodesy Science for the Jupiter Europa Orbiter Mission

摘要

This work examines the Jupiter Europa Orbiter mission in the context of orbit stability and geodesy science. The primary aspect of the mission considered is sensing tidal parameters at Europa. We develop the equations of motion for the elliptic Restricted Three Body Problem centered at Europa and integrate several candidate orbits. These orbits are used in a covariance analysis to compute the uncertainty in desired science measurements such as the k_2 tidal Love number. A batch formulation of a square root information filter referenced to epoch state is used to generate the covariance associated with an orbiter's position and velocity, Europa's gravity field, and the tidal Love number. The integrated orbit and decay of periapse due to Jupiter's tidal gravity are shown in figures and the epoch 1-σ measurement uncertainties are given in tables.