Evaluation and Integration of Potential Instruments for Subsurface Ocean Worlds Missions
Abstract
NASA has posed "Big Questions" to motivate planetary exploration, including how life evolved, what characteristics lead to life, and whether we are alone. Ocean Worlds are bodies that may have past or extant interior global oceans, such as Europa, Enceladus, and Ceres, and are hypothesized to have habitable regions within their icy crusts. This has driven scientific communities to consider in situ exploration of these icy bodies. Autonomous ice penetrators build upon the capabilities of classical surface landers, enabling new opportunities for planetary science investigations. In this presentation, I will show the results of a study into potential probe-board and ocean-deployed instrumentation strategies for ice penetrators. By design, penetrators are able to embed instrumentation into the ice crust, continuously ingest surrounding melt water to sample on descent, provide data with depth, and potentially deploy ocean-faring mobility platforms. Ice descent probes are highly integrated, imposing several challenges in regard to scientific instrumentation selection, configuration, and operation. In addition to leveraging industry water monitoring technology, there is significant planetary heritage for life detection and habitability instrumentation, offering specific capabilities that may be utilized for future subsurface icy moon missions. Subsurface vehicle instruments would inherently be compact and robust to withstand both the physical constraints of the vehicle and surrounding environment, making it essential for NASA and the science community to identify risks and dependencies across instrument technology trades. Additionally, strong practices in Planetary Protection are critical to prevent biological contamination and maintain scientific integrity for life detection instruments. Chemical and heat treatments to surfaces in contact with water or the external environment would be deployed while for sensitive instrumentation, in-line filters would be integrated into vehicle outlets. A final consideration, the development of baseline system and Planetary Protection requirements for instrument classes early in probe designs, would assist in preventing amalgamation complications prior to any potential future mission.
Predecisional information, for planning and discussion only.- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.P51B..05K
- Keywords:
-
- 0728 Ice shelves;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 6221 Europa;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS;
- 6282 Enceladus;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS;
- 6297 Instruments and techniques;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS