Ring Dynamics Up Close With the Saturn Ring Observer

The National Research Council's Solar System Exploration Decadal Survey identified a Saturn Ring Observer (SRO) mission concept as one of two "promising concepts for longer-term missions" to the outer solar system. The spacecraft would orbit Saturn in a (mildly) non-Keplerian orbit within a km or two of Saturn's ring plane. Details of dynamical processes in Saturn's rings, thought by some researchers to have important implications for the dynamics of protoplanetary disks, appear to be observable only in situ, by stationing an observing platform sufficiently close to the rings to observe and characterize the collisions of cm-size and larger particles. Larger-scale (up to a few km) processes, including clumping and agglomeration behavior strongly suggested by Cassini data, can also be observed from this vantage point and related to the behavior of individual particles. Direct insertion from approach into such a "ring hover" orbit requires a propulsive delta-V of ~10 km/s. This exceeds the feasible limits for post-launch chemical propulsion, so this approach is a candidate for fission-powered electric propulsion. But such systems are decades in the future. A nearer-term implementation could insert via aerocapture using Saturn's atmosphere and then propulsively circularize into the hover orbit. Post-aerocapture clean-up and circularization maneuvers could use a standard chemical propulsion system that provides a much more palatable (for chemical systems) delta-V of ~3.5 km/s. We evaluated a year-long science mission that would begin with insertion into the hover orbit at a Kronocentric radius of 110,000 km, moving weekly to a more distant radial location to view scientifically interesting parts of Saturn's A and B rings, eventually traversing ~20,000 km radially across the rings. A Radioisotope Power System (RPS) powers the orbiter, including multiple instruments and the rather capable telecommunications system needed to return a large data volume from Saturn. This presentation describes high-priority science objectives for an SRO mission, results of the recent studies, and implementation options.