Starship as an Enabler for Faster, More Ambitious Missions to Europa
Discuss this preprint
Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
Europa’s astrobiological promise is matched by the severity of its engineering constraints. The propulsive energy required to reach the surface of Europa diminishes potential science payloads to the point at which historical flagship mission plans, using expendable rockets like the SLS, would deliver less than 50kg to Europa, with a transit time of over 6 years. In this paper, we show the feasibility of the SpaceX Starship delivering payloads of 10000kg or more, directly to the surface of Europa, with transit times of less than 2.5 years.
