AbstractThe Nuclear Europa Mobile Ocean (NEMO) mission would land on the surface of Europa, and deploy a small, lightweight melt probe powered by a compact nuclear reactor to melt down through the multi-kilometer ice sheet. After reaching the sub-surface ocean, a small nuclear Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) would deploy to explore the sub-ice ocean. After exploration and sample collection, the AUV would return to the probe and melt back to the lander. The lander would have replenished its H 2 propellant by electrolysis of H 2 O ice, and then hop to a new site on Europa to repeat the probe/AUV process. After completing the mission, the NEMO spacecraft would return to Earth with its collected samples. The NEMO melt probe and AUV utilize enriched U-235 fuel and conventional water reactor technology. The lander utilizes a compact nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) engine based on the 710 tungsten / UO 2 cermet fuel and high-temperature H2 propellant. The compact nuclear reactors in both the NEMO melt probe and AUV drive a steam power cycle, generating over 10kW(e) for use in each. Each nuclear reactor's operating lifetime is several years. With its high-mobility and long-duration mission, NEMO provides an ideal platform for life detection experiments.


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    Titel :

    NEMO: A mission to search for and return to Earth possible life forms on Europa


    Beteiligte:
    Powell, Jesse (Autor:in) / Powell, James (Autor:in) / Maise, George (Autor:in) / Paniagua, John (Autor:in)

    Erschienen in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 57 , 2-8 ; 579-593


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2005-01-01


    Format / Umfang :

    15 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch




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