Searching for orbits around Europa that requires lower fuel consumption for stationkeeping

Abstract

Nowadays, there are several studies for missions that will place a satellite around Europa. There are many important aspects that deserve to be studied in this natural satellite of Jupiter. It makes the study of orbits around Europa a particular important part of the mission, since a good choice for them will reduce the costs related to station-keeping and then increasing the duration of the mission. In some previous studies, a search for frozen orbit around Europa was presented based in average techniques. The present research has the objective of using the new concept of stability of orbits with respect to station-keeping maneuvers that is available in the literature to study circular orbits around Europa. This concept is based in the integral of the perturbing forces over the time. This value can estimate the total variation of velocity required by the station-keeping propulsion system to compensate the perturbations suffered by the spacecraft. The value of this integral is a characteristic of the perturbations considered and the orbit chosen for the spacecraft. Numerical simulations are made showing the costs of station-keeping for circular orbits around Europa are shown as a function of the eccentricity and semi-major axis of the orbits.