Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter - Mission Profile

Mission Profile

In may 2015, three launches were planned to LEO in order to assemble the two transfer stages and the probe. Transfer stages were designed to launch the probe on its trajectory to Jupiter during the launch window extending from late october 2015 to mid-january 2016. During the first month of the flight the probe's main structures would be deployed, the nuclear reactor activated and the thrusters tested. Interplanetary flight would have lasted until april 2021 (the ion engines were supposed to work two third of the time). Once the probe in the influence area of Jupiter, the navigation becomes more complex and difficult. That is why the probe would have use gravity assist maneuvers (it was expected that with this technique all transferts between the satellites would have saved 80% of the theoretical amount of fuel needed for this part of the mission). The probe would have study Callisto then Ganymede during 3 months each and finally Europa for 1 month (a study of Io was also planned when the orbital conditions would have been favorable). At the end of the mission in september 2025, the vehicle would have been parked on a stable orbit around Europa despite the proximity of Jupiter (and therefore more radiations coming from the giant gas planet which are dangerous for the probe's instruments).