2015 NASA Europa Explorer (FLAGSHIP MISSION)

[Istochnikov]

Hi:

While i was collectiong the information for my "Commercial Sats" add-on, i've found this http://www.sondasespaciales.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=34&func=fileinfo&id=123

It's the final study of an Europa Explorer that (if it will be approved) will be launched on a Delta 4H rocket in 2015 and will come to Jupiter in 2021 an two years after it will enter in Europa's Orbit.

30 minutes in 3D Studio Max 7 gave me this :lol:

The explorer is like this (images taken from the PDF)

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks really interesting!

 

[joiz]

is there a lander? if so, will there be terrain? if possible make a rover and AMSO style terrain, that would be more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

 

[Urwumpe]

is there a lander? if so, will there be terrain? if possible make a rover and AMSO style terrain, that would be more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

No lander, from what I can tell about it, but a HUGE extra long wave radar antenna.

 

[Belisarius]

It's a shame they don't put a penetrator on it to get beneath the ice. I have an old 1986 book with a nice plan for such a thing.

 

[Piper]

Wow, its somewhat scary how much this is like my Io Orbiter mission. The satellite itself is different, but there's a lot of simularities in how the mission is run. Lunch on a DeltaIV Heavy, use flybys to get to Jupiter, use Jupiter's moons to reduce the orbit, and then use a huge booster attached to the satellite to brake into the moons orbit. However I'm going to detach my booster, and smash it into Io (with the Io Orbiter watching the Impact). Another big difference is mine will include a lander.

I really hope they do this mission since I designed the Io Orbiter to compliment the Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter mission which was going to the other moons.

 

[Istochnikov]

It's a shame they don't put a penetrator on it to get beneath the ice. I have an old 1986 book with a nice plan for such a thing.

Maybe i can add one... but... how many ice should this thing penetrate before reaching land/ocean???

 

[Istochnikov]

UPDATE:

The Europa Explorer has been completed in a 75%... the only things TBD are the instrument section (Radar, Cameras, Magnetometers an other things...), compiling a module in C++, and obviously... the scenarios

This is the bus mesh:

And a test whith this beauty orbiting Europa