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Mission Design Challenge

Fly Past Europa

Saved locally on this device
Learning goals
  • Match instruments to the science goals of the challenge.
  • Balance mass, power, cost, risk, and communication throughput.
  • Explain your design tradeoffs in your own words.
Help & glossary
  • Meters update in real time so you can see the impact of each choice.
  • Errors are red; warnings are amber. You can still launch with warnings.
  • Your written explanation stays on this device.

This is an educational mission-design simulation. Scores and simplified engineering values do not represent an approved or operational NASA mission.

1. Briefing2. Platform3. Power4. Comms5. Instruments6. Timeline7. Explanation8. Results

Mission briefing

Design a Jupiter-orbiting spacecraft that performs repeated close flybys of Europa. You must survive Jupiter's radiation, communicate over long distances, and select instruments that can sense the ice shell and any subsurface ocean.

Destination
Europa (Jupiter moon)
Mission type
Flyby (from Jupiter orbit)
Environment
radiation, cold-night, distant-sun

Science goals

  • Map surface features and ice shell.
  • Detect subsurface liquid water.
  • Analyze surface chemistry.

Sources