PRE2019 1 Group2

- Group -

• Kasper Dols - 0953689
• Marco Luijten - 1008931
• Wouter Meekes - 1011988

Main tutor: Tijn Borghuis

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- Week 1 -

Mars rover edit for Europa (Jupiter's moon, not the continent)

• Problems statement and objectives
  • In the 2020s (the exact date is to be determined), NASA intends to send a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa where a spacecraft will orbit around Europa with the ultimate goal of determining whether it would be able to sustain life. If this mission is found successful, the next logical step is to send a rover (much like the ones forming the majority of the current martian population) to Europa to take a closer look at Europa’s surface. However, Europa and Mars are significantly different planetoids. What changes would have to be made to the latest Mars rover - Curiosity - to make it suitable for a mission to Europa?

• Who are the users?
  • NASA
    • Project aids them in going to Europa
  • Scientific community
    • We learn more about planetoids in our solar system
  • Humanity
    • We may find a new habitable planet in our solar system to help distribute the human population load on Earth

• What do they require?
  • NASA requires a detailed dissertation on what changes need to be made to Curiosity to send it to Europa

• Approach, milestones and deliverables
  • Investigate how Curiosity is adapted to Mars -> Find out how Europa differs significantly from Mars -> Adapt Curiosity to work on Europa
  • Deliverables are certainly requirements for Curiositwo, and hopefully a digital model of what it looks like

• Who is doing what?
  • Divide in three parts
    • Research equipment
    • Driving components (energy, wheels, etc)
    • Communication and autonomy

SotA: literature study, at least 25 relevant scientific papers and/or patents studied, summary on the wiki!

• Mars:
  • Surface:
    • Chemistry
      • Iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium and potassium in crust
    • Solidity
      • Sand and dirt
      • Only frozen water
  • Seismology:
    • Stationary Core
    • Tectonics
    • Volcanoes and canyons
  • Atmosphere:
    • Makeup
      • CO2, N2, Ar
    • Sandstorms
    • High temperature differentials
  • Dangers:
    • No magnetosphere
      • Solar wind
    • Sandstorms
• Europa:
  • Surface:
    • Chemistry
      • Largely frozen (salt) water
      • Reddish brown material in the cracks, likely salt and sulfur compounds
    • Solidity
      • Icy layer with large cracks (1-2 km wide to 100s of kms long) and tall ridges
      • Could be convecting slowly
      • Possibly liquid water; floating?
    • Sub-Jovian side is smoother than anti-Jovian??
    • Penitentes
  • Seismology:
    • Core
      • Iron core, rocky mantle, saltwater or slushy second mantle, icy crust
    • Tectonics
      • Close proximity to Jupiter creates changing tidal forces which flex Europa as it orbits Jupiter, creating tectonics in the icy crust.
  • Atmosphere:
    • Thin Oxygen atmosphere
    • Cold AF
  • Magnetosphere
    • Jupiter disrupted by Europa; electrically conductive fluid (e.g. salt water) beneath the surface
    • (Investigate strength)
  • Dangers:
    • Jupe-Jupe?
      • Gravity is complicated because due to Jupiter, the net gravity on Europa is not uniform; watch out with toppling the rover
  • Previous explorations
  • Chaos Terrain
    • Conamara common example
      • Is, however, very young -> few million years
        • Pre-conamara terrain?
      • Very small
    • Tectonic terrain that has been jumbled up like a puzzle
      • ‘Rafts’
    • Upwellings of ‘magmas’?

Research is ongoing and will be added as it progresses