Aerospace Engineering Seminar

NASA's planetary protection policies require that spacecraft seek to avoid biologically contaminating Europa. For low-energy missions to Europa, we study the feasibility of placing spacecraft in quarantine orbits. This study sought to define what would be needed for the spacecraft to remain in quarantine orbit around Jupiter long enough to become sterilized by Jupiter's radiation environment. The mutual resonance of the four Galilean moons leads us to predict certain resonances as more stable in the ephemeris model. We verify this through a six-body Galilean System model Poincaré map and propagation in the ephemeris model. (Anderson et al.)

Anderson, B., M. Lo, M. Vaquero, The Stability of Orbital Resonances for Europa Quarantine Design, AAS 19-481, Maui, HA, January 2019.