Moonraker: Enceladus Multiple Flyby Mission

Mousis, O.; Bouquet, A.; Langevin, Y.; André, N.; Boithias, H.; Durry, G.; Faye, F.; Hartogh, P.; Helbert, J.; Iess, L.; Kempf, S.; Masters, A.; Postberg, F.; Renard, J.-B.; Vernazza, P.; Vorburger, A.; Wurz, P.; Atkinson, D. H.; Barabash, S.; Berthomier, M.; ... (2022). Moonraker: Enceladus Multiple Flyby Mission. The planetary science journal, 3(12), p. 268. IOP Publishing 10.3847/PSJ/ac9c03

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Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn, possesses an internal water ocean and jets expelling ocean material into space. Cassini investigations indicated that the subsurface ocean could be a habitable environment having a complex interaction with the rocky core. Further investigation of the composition of the plume formed by the jets is necessary to fully understand the ocean, its potential habitability, and what it tells us about Enceladus's origin. Moonraker has been proposed as an ESA M-class mission designed to orbit Saturn and perform multiple flybys of Enceladus, focusing on traversals of the plume. The proposed Moonraker mission consists of an ESA-provided platform with strong heritage from JUICE and Mars Sample Return and carrying a suite of instruments dedicated to plume and surface analysis. The nominal Moonraker mission has a duration of ∼13.5 yr. It includes a 23-flyby segment with 189 days allocated for the science phase and can be expanded with additional segments if resources allow. The mission concept consists of investigating (i) the habitability conditions of present-day Enceladus and its internal ocean, (ii) the mechanisms at play for the communication between the internal ocean and the surface of the South Polar Terrain, and (iii) the formation conditions of the moon. Moonraker, thanks to state-of-the-art instruments representing a significant improvement over Cassini's payload, would quantify the abundance of key species in the plume, isotopic ratios, and the physical parameters of the plume and the surface. Such a mission would pave the way for a possible future landed mission.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute > Space Research and Planetary Sciences
08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute

UniBE Contributor:

Wurz, Peter

Subjects:

500 Science > 530 Physics
500 Science > 520 Astronomy
600 Technology > 620 Engineering

ISSN:

2632-3338

Publisher:

IOP Publishing

Language:

English

Submitter:

Dora Ursula Zimmerer

Date Deposited:

10 Mar 2023 13:44

Last Modified:

06 Sep 2024 00:10

Publisher DOI:

10.3847/PSJ/ac9c03

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/179774

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/179774

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