Simulated recovery of Europa's global shape and tidal Love numbers from altimetry and radio tracking during a dedicated flyby tour

摘要

The fundamental scientific objectives for future spacecraft exploration of Jupiter's moon Europa include confirmation of the existence of subsurface ocean beneath the surface ice shell and constraints on the physical properties of the ocean. Here we conduct a comprehensive simulation of a multiple-flyby mission. We demonstrate that radio tracking data can provide an estimate of the gravitational tidal Love number k(2) with sufficient precision to confirm the presence of a liquid layer. We further show that a capable long-range laser altimeter can improve determination of the spacecraft position, improve the k(2) determination (<1% error), and enable the estimation of the planetary shape and Love number h(2) (3-4% error), which is directly related to the amplitude of the surface tidal deformation. These measurements, in addition to the global shape accurately constrained by the long altimetric profiles, can yield further constraints on the interior structure of Europa.