Europa Clipper Updates
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Science Implica,ons of ICEMAG Descope: OPAG Update Robert Pappalardo, Europa Clipper Project Scien,st1 Haje Korth, Europa Clipper APL Deputy Project Scien,st2 Carol Raymond, ICEMAG Principal Inves,gator1 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Instute of Technology; 2Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory April 23, 2019 08/20-24/2018 Copyright 2019 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged 0-1 . Summary: Science Impact of Descoping the SVH Sensors • Descope of the ICEMAG scalar-vector helium (SVH) sensors means there will be no absolute measurement of the magneHc field, limiHnG reliable retrieval of the inducHon siGnal at Europa’s orbital period (85 hr), which is central to characterizinG Europa’s ocean properHes (salinity and thickness) • Puts at risk the current Level 1 requirement: – Constrain the average thickness of the ice shell, and the average thickness and salinity of the ocean, each to ±50% • Other Baseline Level 1 requirements are not affected; Threshold Level 1 requirements are not affected; and Mission Success Criteria can sHll be achieved • Diminished informaon on ocean thickness and salinity will limit our understandinG of Europa’s ocean habitability, interior structure, composiHonal fracHonaon, and plume provenance – Ocean salinity is especially relevant to ocean habitability (specifically: water acHvity, available enerGy for metabolism, and lonG-term history of water-rock reacHons), important to the mission Goal of understandinG Europa’s habitability • Other instruments cannot reliably recover the lost science: – Data from other Europa Clipper composiHonal instruments provide limited informaon on ocean salinity, Given possible fracHonaon within Europa, and we cannot be assured of flyinG throuGh a putave plume sourced from the ocean – Combined radar (ice shell) and Gravity Science (total H2O layer) are not expected to be definiHve for ocean thickness – Ice shell thickness could potenHally be constrained from radar ranGinG (h2) plus Gravity science (k2), but how precisely is work in proGress, and these are currently not required measurements of the mission Presentaon to OPAG: April 23, 2019 2 Europa’s Ocean Thickness and Conduc@vity Can Be Derived from Induced Magne@c Field Measurement at Mul@ple Frequencies Simula@on of Europa’s Dipole Field Induced at 11-hr Synodic Period Induced Magne,c Field at Europa (nT) Simulaon by Corey Cochrane • Europa’s inducHon response at mulHple frequencies probes of the depth and salinity of the conducHve ocean – Jupiter–Europa synodic period = 11.2 h; Europa orbital period = 85.2 h • InducHon efficiency at the synodic period (11.2 h) provides ice shell thickness, if conducHvity is known • Measurement of Europa’s induced magneHc field at Europa’s 85.2 h orbital period requires high precision (~0.1 nT) over flyby Hme scales, and hiGh absolute accuracy sustained over the course of the mission (~1 nT over 2+ yr) [Khurana, 2002] Presentaon to OPAG: April 23, 2019 3 SpacecraJ Magne@c Field Removal • Europa Clipper’s challenge is magnetic mapping by a flyby mission in a dynamic ambient field, with variable magnetic noise and offsets • ICEMAG employed 2 fluxgate (FG) and 2 scalar- The Europa Clipper spacecraft has a complex and strong vector helium (SVH) magnetometers to measure magnetic field that cannot be Z (m) the complex spacecraft field, to allow the modeled as a simple dipolar field. Each circle here is a spacecraft field to be removed from the data magnetic moment, scaled to • Intended to enable the long-term stability needed its magnitude. to connect flybys into a single measurement set • Multiple sensors permit correction at a cadence Y (m) fast enough to separate transient spacecraft noise from the induction field, and permit identification and removal of higher-order spacecraft fields • ICEMAG’s approach enabled a relaxed magnetic cleanliness of 10 nT field at end of a 5 m boom For comparison, this diagram • A 2-fluxgate system would need a >15-m boom represents a dipolar space- and a more stringent magnetic cleanliness program craft field. to allow spacecraft field removal at sub-nT levels Presentaon to OPAG: April 23, 2019 4 Magnetometer Comparison • Fluxgate magnetometers: – Sense the imbalance of the voltage induced in a coil surroundinG a ferromagneHc material oscillanG between saturated states of opposite magneHzaon direcHon, as created in presence of an ambient magneHc field – FluxGate offsets chanGe due to temperature variaons and thermal Gradients and can drii over Hme, so require periodic calibraon in fliGht inducon – FluxGate magnetometers have hiGh precision (<0.1 nT), but coil offset uncertainty and difficulty removinG the spacecra field s@mula@on coil result in errors ~3 nT on lonG-term retrieved inducHon accuracy [Drljača et al., 2004] Image credit: sensorland.com • Helium magnetometers: FiBer – Sense a magneHc resonance, with the resonance frequency Op@c proporHonal to the magneHc field CaBle RF coil – He magnetometer measurements are absolute because the constant of proporHonality is an atomic constant – Fiber opHc cable GuidinG circularly polarized laser liGht from the electronics to the sensors is sensiHve to radiaon and temperature, so was quite challenGinG to accommodate – Absolute measurement such as provided by a He magnetometer would have ensured an order of magnitude improvement of [Rutkowski et al., 2014] flyby-to-flyby accuracy over the Europa Clipper mission duraon 5 Presentaon to OPAG: April 23, 2019 Impact of Descoping SVH Sensors: Ocean Proper@es • Without correcHon, driiinG zero-level offsets of the fluxGate sensors can result in errors that siGnificantly 4 FG (±3 nT) 225nT deGrade the accuracy of the inducHon retrieval ICEMAG Req (±1.5 nT) 2 SVH & 2 FG (±0.2 nT) – Errors for a 4-FG system include contribuHons from residual low-frequency dynamic spacecra fields and 228nT ± 0.2 nT uncalibrated offsets and Gains • Example of the impact of this error on determinaon of ocean parameters is illustrated by plonG expected 231nT uncertainty in the thickness-conducHvity soluHon* (for an example case of a 60-km thick ocean with 11nT conducHvity of 1.0 S/m) – Including absolute reference data would yield HGht 8nT ± 0.2 nT bounds on ocean thickness and conducHvity – Nominal 4-FG case yields a larGe error on ocean thickness 5nT and conducHvity, unable to confidently disHnGuish freshwater from seawater Putative Earth * Errors determined by an inducHon simulaon that uHlizes a realisHc error spectrum lower limit seawater SVH sensor descope increases uncertainHes in esHmates of ocean thickness and conducHvity, limiHnG our understandinG of Europa’s ocean habitability, interior structure, composiHonal fracHonaon, and plume provenance Presentaon to OPAG: April 23, 2019 6 Impact of Descoping SVH Sensors: Ocean Conduc@vity Low Conductivity Case: Medium Conductivity Case: High Conductivity Case: Conductivity: 0.5 S/m Conductivity: 1.0 S/m Conductivity: 3.0 S/m Ocean Thickness: 120 km Ocean Thickness: 60 km Ocean Thickness: 25 km Fixed Ice Thickness: 10 km Fixed Ice Thickness: 20 km Fixed Ice Thickness: 30 km 9.1nT 228nT 230nT 8nT 4FG (±3 nT) ICEMAG Req (±1.5 nT) 2FG + 2SVH (±0.2 nT) ConducHvity is only weakly constrained for oceans with conducHvity > ~2 S/m; errors in conducHvity (salinity) rise non-linearly as conducHvity increases Presentaon to OPAG: April 23, 2019 7 Impact of Descoping SVH Sensors: Ice Shell Thickness 4FG (±3 nT) ICEMAG Req (± 1.5 nT) 2FG + 2SVH (± 0.2 nT) This plot illustrates the induced magneHc field at Conductivity uncertainty broadens the error bounds the 11.2 hr period (nT) vs ice shell thickness (km), on ice thickness determination for ocean conducHviHes of 1 and 10 S/m • Intrinsic error doubles between the conservave ICEMAG requirement (±1.5 nT) and the 4-FG esHmate (±3 nT) • For the 1 S/m example shown, the ±50% Level-1 10 S/m requirement is met for ice shell thickness >15 km • However, ice shell thickness determinaon is 1 S/m conducHvity dependent, such that error in conducHvity increases error in ice shell thickness, especially for hiGh conducHvity oceans Ice shell thickness measurement accuracy depends on conducHvity, which in turn depends on lonG-term accuracy of the inducHon at the 85-h period Presentaon to OPAG: April 23, 2019 8 Par@al Recovery of Measurement Accuracy • Facility magnetometer with 4 fluxGates is less capable than oriGinal payload with SVH sensors, but lost measurement accuracy may be parHally recovered • ReGular spacecra' rolls and other maneuvers may permit determinaon of zero levels – AlthouGh the larGe spacecra maneuvers slowly, and extended maneuver Hme could impact mission resources, addiHonal work is underway to understand how currently planned spacecra maneuvers can aid calibraon of offsets, what addiHonal maneuvers would be most beneficial to this calibraon, and whether zero levels determined near apoapse represent the spacecra environment durinG flybys • Longer boom would allow sensor mounHnG farther from spacecra source fields, more closely approximanG the spacecra field as dipolar – NASA has directed to implement the facility magnetometers on the exisHnG 5-m boom, and boom chanGes could impact the propulsion module desiGn, but the potenHal impacts will be examined and assessed • More strinGent magne0c cleanliness would reduce spacecra contribuHons to the measured magneHc field – We wish to avoid spacecra and payload desiGn chanGes or material choices that would increase cost and complexity but will look to idenHfy any simple improvements • The new Team Leader and reconsHtuted Mag science team