Endgame Design for Europa Lander: Ganymede to Europa Approach

摘要

The endgame scenario that was explored in this analysis consisted of the part of the trajectory starting at the last Ganymede flyby and ending at the final Europa approach. The basic design components included computing the phasing for the final Ganymede encounter, computing the required intermediate Europa flybys, determining the required maneuvers to transition between the intermediate resonances, and interfacing with a computed portal prior to the final approach. The JPL optimization software, COSMIC, was used in the ephemeris model to optimize solutions computed in the circular restricted three-body problem and compute bounds on the attainable set of solutions by sweeping various design parameters.