Showing posts with label space probes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label space probes. Show all posts

Friday, January 18, 2019

Project Lyra: the Proposed Mission to Oumuamua



Authors:


Hein et al

Abstract: 
The first definitely interstellar object 1I/‘Oumuamua (previously A/2017 U1) observed in our solar system provides the opportunity to directly study material from other star systems. Can such objects be intercepted? The challenge of reaching the object within a reasonable timeframe is formidable due to its high heliocentric hyperbolic excess velocity of about 26 km/s; much faster than any vehicle yet launched. This paper presents a high-level analysis of potential near-term options for a mission to 1I/‘Oumuamua and potential similar objects. Launching a spacecraft to 1I/‘Oumuamua in a reasonable timeframe of 5–10 years requires a hyperbolic solar system excess velocity between 33 and 76 km/s for mission durations between 30 and 5 years. Different mission durations and their velocity requirements are explored with respect to the launch date, assuming direct impulsive transfer to the intercept trajectory. For missions using a powered Jupiter flyby combined with a solar Oberth maneuver using solid rocket boosters and Parker Solar Probe heat shield technology, a Falcon Heavy-class launcher would be able to launch a spacecraft of dozens of kilograms towards 1I/‘Oumuamua, if launched in 2021. An additional Saturn flyby would allow for the launch of a New Horizons-class spacecraft. Further technology options are outlined, ranging from electric propulsion, and more advanced options such as laser electric propulsion, and solar and laser sails. To maximize science return decelerating the spacecraft at ’Oumuamua is highly desirable, due to the minimal science return from a hyper-velocity encounter. Electric and magnetic sails could be used for this purpose. It is concluded that although reaching the object is challenging, there seem to be feasible options based on current and near-term technology.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Russia Claims it Will Land a Probe on the Moon Next Year

The launch of Russia’s Luna-25 lunar landing station is scheduled for 2019, with no delays in the timeframe of the mission’s commencement, the Lavochkin Research and Production Association (the lander’s manufacturer) told TASS on Thursday.

"Under the schedule, the launch of the Luna-25 mission is planned for 2019," the Lavochkin Research and Production Association said.

Some media outlets reported on Thursday that the launch of the Luna-25 lander had allegedly been rescheduled for 2020.

As was reported earlier, Russia plans to dispatch the Lunar-25 research landing module to the Earth’s natural satellite in 2019, the Luna-26 orbiter in 2021 and the Luna-27 lander in 2022.

The Luna-25 project aims to launch an automatic probe for research in the Moon’s South Pole. The module is expected to land in the Boguslavsky crater to analyze the composition of regolith, the lunar dust, carry out stereo-photography for preparing the surface’s 3D map and identify the lander’s coordinates with millimeter accuracy using a laser angled reflector.

Friday, July 08, 2016

The Titan Winged Aerobot is an Intriguing Glider/Balloon Hybrid


With a suspected subterranean sea of liquid water, oceans of methane on the surface and an atmosphere that could give rise to non-water-based life, it's no surprise that scientists are keen to learn more about Saturn's moon Titan. To that end, a new joint project between the Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) and Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS) is developing a new exploration vehicle designed to soar through the skies of that mysterious moon.

The proposed Titan Winged Aerobot (TWA) is inspired by Northrop Grumman's T-LEAF (Lifting Entry Atmospheric Flight) class of vehicles, which would allow the craft to gently enter the atmosphere before transitioning into flight mode. Once there, the TWA would operate like a hybrid balloon and glider, utilizing a unique buoyancy system to allow it to ascend and descend without the use of propulsion systems or flight control surfaces. Minimal moving parts means it could squeeze more juice out of a single radioisotope power source.

Monday, December 14, 2015

ESA, Airbus Sign $374 Million Contract for Jupiter Icy Moons Mission (JUICE)


The European Space Agency on Dec. 9 signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the construction of ESA’s Juice – Jupiter Icy Moons – orbiter, scheduled for launch in 2022 aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket.

The contract had been expected since ESA’s July decision to approve a contract valued at 350.8 million euros ($374 million) with Airbus after a competition with Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy and OHB SE of Germany, which had submitted a joint bid.

Francois Auque, head of Airbus Space Systems, said Juice hardware will be produced as early as mid-2016, with the full contracting team from 60 companies lined up by 2017. Some 150 people will be working on the prime contractor’s project team at the program’s peak in 2017-2018, he said.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

NASA's Juno to Arrive at Jupiter on July 4th, 2016

When Galileo Galilei turned his telescope to Jupiter in 1610, he uncovered the planet’s four large moons, as well as a new vision of the cosmos. Not everything had to orbit Earth.

NASA’s first dedicated mission to Jupiter, named in honor of the great astronomer, was intended to bring about a similar revolution. And it mostly did. Much of what astronomers know about the gas giant and its satellites still comes from Galileo’s dataset.

But that’s poised to change July 4, 2016. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will beam breathtaking views of the gas giant and its atmosphere back to Earth. Every two weeks, the solar-powered spacecraft will plunge past Jupiter at a distance as close as 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the cloudtops. An array of scientific instruments will also help Juno peer into the heart of the largest planet in the solar system, uncovering the planet’s structure, atmosphere, and magnetosphere. Another visit to the system, the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission, is also in the works.

Thursday, November 05, 2015

The Hera Saturn Atmospheric Entry Probe Mission

The Hera Saturn Entry Probe Mission

Authors:

Mousis et al

Abstract:

The Hera Saturn entry probe mission is proposed as an M--class mission led by ESA with a contribution from NASA. It consists of one atmospheric probe to be sent into the atmosphere of Saturn, and a Carrier-Relay spacecraft. In this concept, the Hera probe is composed of ESA and NASA elements, and the Carrier-Relay Spacecraft is delivered by ESA. The probe is powered by batteries, and the Carrier-Relay Spacecraft is powered by solar panels and batteries. We anticipate two major subsystems to be supplied by the United States, either by direct procurement by ESA or by contribution from NASA: the solar electric power system (including solar arrays and the power management and distribution system), and the probe entry system (including the thermal protection shield and aeroshell). Hera is designed to perform in situ measurements of the chemical and isotopic compositions as well as the dynamics of Saturn's atmosphere using a single probe, with the goal of improving our understanding of the origin, formation, and evolution of Saturn, the giant planets and their satellite systems, with extrapolation to extrasolar planets. Hera's aim is to probe well into the cloud-forming region of the troposphere, below the region accessible to remote sensing, to the locations where certain cosmogenically abundant species are expected to be well mixed. By leading to an improved understanding of the processes by which giant planets formed, including the composition and properties of the local solar nebula at the time and location of giant planet formation, Hera will extend the legacy of the Galileo and Cassini missions by further addressing the creation, formation, and chemical, dynamical, and thermal evolution of the giant planets, the entire solar system including Earth and the other terrestrial planets, and formation of other planetary systems.

Wednesday, August 05, 2015

How Well can we Detect Volcanic Activity on Venus With Radar Imaging Space Probes

Probabilistic Constraints from Existing and Future Radar Imaging on Volcanic Activity on Venus

Author:

Lorenz

Abstract:

We explore the quantitative limits that may be placed on Venus' present-day volcanic activity by radar imaging of surface landforms. The apparent nondetection of new lava flows in the areas observed twice by Magellan suggests that there is a ~60% chance that the eruption rate is ~1 km3/yr or less, using the eruption history and area/volume flow geometry of terrestrial volcanos (Etna, Mauna Loa and Merapi) as a guide. However, if the detection probability of an individual flow is low (e.g. ~10%) due to poor resolution or quality and unmodeled viewing gemetry effects, the constraint (less than 10 km3/yr) is not useful. Imaging at Magellan resolution or better of only ~10% of the surface area of Venus on a new mission (30 years after Magellan) would yield a better than 99% chance of detecting a new lava flow, even if volcanic activity is at the low end of predictions (~0.01 km3/yr) and is expressed through a single volcano with a stochastic eruption history. Closer re-examination of Magellan data may be worthwhile, both to search for new features, but also to establish formal (location-dependent) limits on activity against which data from future missions can be tested. While Magellan-future and future-future comparisons should offer much lower detection thresholds for erupted volumes, a probabilistic approach will be required to properly understand the implications.

Saturday, August 01, 2015

The Hera Saturn Entry Probe Mission














The hera saturn entry probe mission

Authors:

Mousis et al

Abstract:

The Hera Saturn entry probe mission is proposed as an M–class mission led by ESA with a contribution from NASA. It consists of one atmospheric probe to be sent into the atmosphere of Saturn, and a Carrier–Relay spacecraft. In this concept, the Hera probe is composed of ESA and NASA elements, and the Carrier–Relay Spacecraft is delivered by ESA. The probe is powered by batteries, and the Carrier–Relay Spacecraft is powered by solar panels and batteries. We anticipate two major subsystems to be supplied by the United States, either by direct procurement by ESA or by contribution from NASA: the solar electric power system (including solar arrays and the power management and distribution system), and the probe entry system (including the thermal protection shield and aeroshell). Hera is designed to perform in situ measurements of the chemical and isotopic compositions as well as the dynamics of Saturn's atmosphere using a single probe, with the goal of improving our understanding of the origin, formation, and evolution of Saturn, the giant planets and their satellite systems, with extrapolation to extrasolar planets. Hera's aim is to probe well into the cloud-forming region of the troposphere, below the region accessible to remote sensing, to the locations where certain cosmogenically abundant species are expected to be well mixed. By leading to an improved understanding of the processes by which giant planets formed, including the composition and properties of the local solar nebula at the time and location of giant planet formation, Hera will extend the legacy of the Galileo and Cassini missions by further addressing the creation, formation, and chemical, dynamical, and thermal evolution of the giant planets, the entire solar system including Earth and the other terrestrial planets, and formation of other planetary systems.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

VAMP: Northrop's Venus Aircraft Proposal for the Next New Frontiers Mission


Northrop Grumman is developing an inflatable, propeller-powered aircraft for a years-long cruise in the sulfurous skies of Venus and is gearing up to enter the concept in NASA’s next New Frontiers planetary science competition.

That Northrop believes its Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform, or VAMP, could be ready to compete for about $1 billion in NASA funding as soon as Oct. 1 is a testament to the company’s confidence in the concept, which despite arousing the intrigue of some Venus scientists is technically immature and likely to face competition from finalists of NASA’s last New Frontiers contest.

“I think we can be ready,” Ron Polidan, Northrop’s Redondo, California-based chief architect of civil systems, told SpaceNews.


Thursday, October 09, 2014

NASA/APL's Europa Clipper Mission Moves Ahead, Selects Solar Panels Over RTGs


Designers of a proposed NASA mission to study the icy and potentially habitable Jupiter moon of Europa have decided to use solar panels rather than a nuclear power source for the spacecraft, while keeping spacecraft’s launch options open.

In an Oct. 3 presentation at the 65th International Astronautical Congress here, Europa Clipper deputy project manager Thomas Magner of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said that using large solar panels for the mission was both technically viable and less expensive than a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).

“For the last two years, we did extensive risk reduction work looking at whether solar is feasible,” Magner said. “We found that solar works fine, so our final decision about two months ago was to go to solar.”

Those tests included subjecting solar cells to a range of temperatures and radiation conditions the spacecraft would experience during the mission. Engineers also examined whether the large solar panels, with an area of 50 square meters, would cause jitter that would adversely affect the spacecraft’s scientific instruments.

Europa Clipper would not be the first solar-powered Jupiter mission: NASA’s Juno spacecraft, launched in 2011 and scheduled to go into orbit around Jupiter in July 2016, also uses solar panels. Magner said they tested solar cells used for Juno, exposing them to a wider range of temperatures to reflect the different trajectory that Europa Clipper would take to reach Jupiter.

A solar-powered Europa Clipper would be less expensive than one that used an RTG, Magner said, although he did not quantify the difference in costs. It would eliminate the need for an environmental impact statement that is required for nuclear-powered spacecraft and launch approval from the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. It would also free up constrained supplies of plutonium-238, the isotope used in RTGs, for other potential missions.

Magner said after his presentation that using solar power would increase the spacecraft’s mass in order to accommodate the panels and structures, although it remained well within current design margins. A few other tweaks would be needed to the spacecraft’s design to incorporate the solar panels, he said.

While NASA has not yet decided to develop Europa Clipper or any other mission to Europa, Magner said the project passed a NASA-sponsored mission concept review in September “with flying colors” and predicted the agency would move ahead with it.

“We expect later this year for NASA to select us as the mission they want to go forward with to Europa, and we’ll get a new start early next year,” he said.

If NASA does choose to proceed with Europa Clipper, it will defer a choice of launch vehicle for several years. One mission design could use an existing rocket, such as the workhorse Atlas 5. In that scenario, Europa Clipper would launch in mid-2022 and, after a series of gravity assist flybys of Venus and Earth, would arrive at Jupiter in early 2030.

An alternative approach would use NASA’s still-in-development Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket to send Europa Clipper on a direct trajectory to Jupiter. A mid-2022 launch would allow the spacecraft to reach Jupiter in fewer than three years, without the need of any flybys.

Launching on SLS, Magner said, would reduce the costs of operating Europa Clipper given the much shorter travel time to Jupiter, and also simplify the thermal design since the spacecraft would not have to perform a Venus flyby in order to reach Jupiter. However, it was unclear how much more Europa Clipper would have to pay for an SLS launch.

link.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

HUZZAH! India's Mangalyaan Beats China, Japan (Even Russia's Return) to Mars!!!


Indians woke up Sept. 24 to see their country’s first interplanetary probe successfully go into orbit around Mars, an anxiously awaited event that had grabbed much media attention.

The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft built by the Indian Space Research Organisation entered Mars orbit at 7:47 a.m. local time. Also known as Mangalyaan, the probe was the second visitor to reach the red planet in less than a week, the first being NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission.

“You have made history today and made the nation proud,” an excited Prime Minister Narendra Modi told ISRO scientists after watching the crucial operation leading to Mangalyaan’s capture by Mars from the mission control center near Bangalore. In an address telecast live from mission control, Modi congratulated the entire ISRO team and urged them to aim for “even more challenging goals.”

Modi noted that the mission is the first Mars orbiter launched by an Asian nation and was developed in a relatively short time frame — 15 months — at a cost of less than what it takes to make some Hollywood movies.

The Mangalyaan spacecraft was launched Nov. 5 by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in the eastern coast 80 kilometers north of Chennai. After a nearly 10-month journey covering some 680 million kilometers, the probe arrived within Mars’ zone of influence Sept. 22 as scheduled to carry out the final operation that would put it into orbit.

At 7:17 a.m. Sep. 24 the spacecraft fired its main onboard engine together with eight smaller attitude control thrusters for 24 minutes. ISRO confirmed the successful burn and orbit insertion around 8 a.m.

In a statement released later, ISRO said Mangalyan was in a highly elliptical orbit with a perigee of 421.7 kilometers and an apogee of 76,993.6 kilometers. The orbital inclination is 150 degrees, with a period of just under 73 hours.

Awesome job, folks!  Congratulations!  Welcome to a very exclusive club.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Chinese Moon Probe may be About to Test new Technologies


Later this year, China will launch a robotic spacecraft to the Moon and back. We have known about this mission for some time, and we know roughly what the mission hopes to achieve. A bell-shaped re-entry capsule will be carried by a boxy spacecraft out to the Moon, and it will then return for a soft landing on Earth.

This is intended as a test of technology to be used on a future Chinese mission to return rock samples from the Moon. That's China's official explanation for the mission, and it seems right.

This analyst also suspects that China is also testing technology for a future Chinese astronaut launch to the Moon. The re-entry capsule is a scale replica of the capsule used on China's Shenzhou astronaut spacecraft.

China has not released a lot of information on the mission, and has not even revealed any diagrams or photographs of the entire spacecraft. We have seen the re-entry module in photographs, but little else.

China has stated that the main spacecraft will be based on the Chang'e lunar orbiter. With this in mind, this analyst previously created a simple diagram of the probable design of the entire spacecraft. The capsule fits neatly atop the boxy Chang'e bus.

We believed that China would fly this mission in a free-return trajectory to the Moon. This meant that the spacecraft would fly around the far side of the Moon and use the Moon's gravity to sling it back to Earth.

CalTech Proposes Cubesats and Chipsat Space Probes

Last month, the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) at the California Institute of Technology released a report titled, “Small Satellites: A Revolution in Space Science,” which examines the sorts of missions types of missions that could be with rapidly evolving small satellites. The potential missions described in the report cover planetary science (moons, asteroids, etc.), astrophysics and heliophysics.

The planetary science missions include the use of mother ships that would deploy CubeSats and impactors to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, tens of thousands of ChipSats to characterize Saturn’s rings, landing vehicles to explore asteroids, and small spacecraft that would map the moon’s interior and search for volatiles and organics.

The report says that a number of the missions are years away because new technologies for small satellites will need to be developed first. The document includes five recommendations for how NASA can go forward on developing the technologies and pursuing the missions.

NASA is already pursuing deep-space CubeSat missions, including a series that will be launched as secondary payloads in the first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) in 2007. In May, the space agency also announced the selection of nine Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I awards to fund deep-space CubeSat technologies. NASA also has funded Draper Laboratory to develop a satellite to deploy ChipSats to explore surface of Europa.


Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Titan's Inner Sea as Salty as Earth's Dead Sea

Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini mission have firm evidence the ocean inside Saturn's largest moon, Titan, might be as salty as the Earth's Dead Sea.

The new results come from a study of gravity and topography data collected during Cassini's repeated flybys of Titan during the past 10 years. Using the Cassini data, researchers presented a model structure for Titan, resulting in an improved understanding of the structure of the moon's outer ice shell. The findings are published in this week's edition of the journal Icarus.

"Titan continues to prove itself as an endlessly fascinating world, and with our long-lived Cassini spacecraft, we're unlocking new mysteries as fast as we solve old ones," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, who was not involved in the study.

Additional findings support previous indications the moon's icy shell is rigid and in the process of freezing solid. Researchers found that a relatively high density was required for Titan's ocean in order to explain the gravity data. This indicates the ocean is probably an extremely salty brine of water mixed with dissolved salts likely composed of sulfur, sodium and potassium. The density indicated for this brine would give the ocean a salt content roughly equal to the saltiest bodies of water on Earth.

"This is an extremely salty ocean by Earth standards," said the paper's lead author, Giuseppe Mitri of the University of Nantes in France. "Knowing this may change the way we view this ocean as a possible abode for present-day life, but conditions might have been very different there in the past."

Cassini data also indicate the thickness of Titan's ice crust varies slightly from place to place. The researchers said this can best be explained if the moon's outer shell is stiff, as would be the case if the ocean were slowly crystalizing, and turning to ice. Otherwise, the moon's shape would tend to even itself out over time, like warm candle wax. This freezing process would have important implications for the habitability of Titan's ocean, as it would limit the ability of materials to exchange between the surface and the ocean.

A further consequence of a rigid ice shell, according to the study, is any outgassing of methane into Titan's atmosphere must happen at scattered "hot spots" -- like the hot spot on Earth that gave rise to the Hawaiian Island chain. Titan's methane does not appear to result from convection or plate tectonics recycling its ice shell.

Monday, May 26, 2014

NASA Starts Construction of InSight Mars Mission


It’s time to get ready for Mars, again! NASA has given the approval to begin construction on its 2016 mission, the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission.

As the mission implies, the lander (which isn’t moveable) will focus on learning more about the inside of Mars. The idea is to figure out how terrestrial planets are “differentiated” inside between core, mantle and crust. Also, watchers of the Mars program may recognize some parts of the lander, as it will borrow the design from the successful Phoenix mission in 2008.



Thursday, May 22, 2014

New Horizons Space Probe has a Crisis


Nearly 4.3 billion kilometres from Earth, and most of the way to Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is in danger of missing out on half of its mission. Project managers face a looming deadline to identify an icy object in the outer Solar System for the probe to fly by after it passes Pluto.

A visit to a Kuiper belt object, or KBO, was always meant to be a key part of New Horizons’ US$700-million journey, which began in 2006. But there is only a slim chance that astronomers will find a suitable KBO with their current strategy of using ground-based telescopes — and securing time on the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope is far from guaranteed.

New Horizons will fly past Pluto in July 2015. Soon afterwards, it must fire its engines and set itself on course to fly past a selected KBO. Project scientists must identify a KBO in the next several months if they are to determine the necessary trajectory well enough for New Horizons to aim accurately and meet its target.

“They’re running out of time,” says Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, who is not involved in the mission. “We’re not just talking about science being lost — we’re talking about getting return on our investment.”

New Horizons scientists have asked for 160 orbits’ worth of observing time on the hugely oversubscribed Hubble. It is a rare request for a NASA mission already in operation. The committee that allocates Hubble time will make a decision by 13 June.

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Using Jupiter's Emissions to Passively Probe the Galilean Moons' Oceans

A Passive Probe for Subsurface Oceans and Liquid Water in Jupiter's Icy Moons

Authors:

Romero-Wolf et al

Abstract:

We describe an interferometric reflectometer method for passive detection of subsurface oceans and liquid water in Jovian icy moons using Jupiter's decametric radio emission (DAM). The DAM flux density exceeds 3,000 times the galactic background in the neighborhood of the Jovian icy moons, providing a signal that could be used for passive radio sounding. An instrument located between the icy moon and Jupiter could sample the DAM emission along with its echoes reflected in the ice layer of the target moon. Cross-correlating the direct emission with the echoes would provide a measurement of the ice shell thickness along with its dielectric properties. The interferometric reflectometer provides a simple solution to sub-Jovian radio sounding of ice shells that is complementary to ice penetrating radar measurements better suited to measurements in the anti-Jovian hemisphere that shadows Jupiter's strong decametric emission. The passive nature of this technique also serves as risk reduction in case of radar transmitter failure. The interferometric reflectometer could operate with electrically short antennas, thus extending ice depth measurements to lower frequencies, and potentially providing a deeper view into the ice shells of Jovian moons.

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Europa Clipper: A NASA Europa Mission on the "Cheap"

As compelling as the scientific case is for Europa, NASA has yet to send a dedicated mission there. Part of that is due to the technical challenges involved in launching a spacecraft to Jupiter and operating in the high radiation environment created by Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field. Those technical obstacles drive up the costs of those proposed, and reduce the chances they can be funded. NASA has studied Europa orbiter mission proposals since the late 1990s, but those efforts typically foundered on costs and shifting priorities.

In 2011, the latest planetary science decadal survey—the once-per-decade report outlining priorities for planetary science missions based on science and other factors—identified a Europa orbiter as the second-highest priority large, or “flagship” mission, behind a rover to collects samples on Mars for later return to Earth. That ranking, though, came with a caveat: an independent study of the mission concluded it would cost $4.7 billion, too high a price tag. For a Europa mission to remain highly ranked, NASA needed to bring down the cost significantly. (See “Tough decisions ahead for planetary exploration”, The Space Review, April 4, 2011).

NASA has been working on reducing a cost of a Europa orbiter mission, in large part by no longer making it an orbiter. The concept now favored within the space agency is something called “Europa Clipper.” Instead of going into orbit around Europa, the spacecraft would instead go into orbit around Jupiter and make repeated close flybys of the moon. The most recent mission designs involve 45 flybys of Europa over three and a half years, with the vast majority of them coming within 100 kilometers of the moon’s surface. That approach minimizes the spacecraft’s exposure to radiation as well as propellant needed for entering orbit around Europa.

link.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Using Juno to see how wet Jupiter is

Measuring Jupiter's water abundance by Juno: the link between interior and formation models

Authors:

Helled et al

Abstract:

The JUNO mission to Jupiter is planned to measure the water abundance in Jupiter's atmosphere below the cloud layer. This measurement is important because it can be used to reveal valuable information on Jupiter's origin and its composition. In this paper we discuss the importance of this measurement, the challenges in its interpretation, and address how it can be connected to interior and formation models of Jupiter.