The Proposed Io Volcano Observer

Io Volcano Observer (IVO): Budget travel to the outer Solar System

Authors:

McEwen et al

Abstract:

The IVO mission would make multiple close encounters with Io while orbiting Jupiter in an inclined elliptical orbit. The payload includes narrow-angle and wide-angle cameras (NAC and WAC), dual fluxgate magnetometers (FGM), a thermal mapper (ThM), dual ion and neutral mass spectrometers (INMS), and dual plasma ion analyzers (PIA). The mission is designed to answer key outstanding questions about Io, especially the nature of the intense active volcanism and internal processes that drive the volcanism. IVO can collect and return 20 Gb of compressed science data per Io encounter, 100 times the total Io data return from the 8yr Galileo tour.