Jovian tour design for orbiter and lander missions to Europa

• We present the Jovian tour design for NASA׳s latest Europa orbiter and lander options.
• The tours minimize the total ionizing dose (TID) and the ΔvΔv in the full ephemeris model.
• Constraints on solar conjunction and local solar time of the orbit node are included.
• ΔvΔv and TID are minimized with multi-body dynamics and avoiding phasing orbits.
• The ΔvΔv and the TID of the tours are compared to those of other tours in the literature.

Europa is one of the most interesting targets for solar system exploration, as its ocean of liquid water could harbor life. Following the recommendation of the Planetary Decadal Survey, NASA commissioned a study for a multiple flyby only mission, an orbiter mission, and a lander mission. This paper presents the moon tours for the lander and orbiter concepts. The total ΔvΔv and radiation dose would be reduced when compared to previous designs by exploiting multi-body dynamics and avoiding multi-revolution transfers in the Ganymede-to-Europa transfer. Tours 11-O3, 12-L1 and 12-L4 and their performances compared to other tours from previous Europa mission studies are presented in detail.