Comparing NASA Discovery and New Frontiers Class Mission Concepts for the Io Volcano Observer (IVO)

TL;DR

This paper compares NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers mission concepts for the Io Volcano Observer, highlighting their architectures, instruments, and science goals to advance understanding of Io's interior, surface, and evolution.

Contribution

It presents a detailed comparison of two mission concepts for Io, emphasizing enhancements and scientific objectives for the New Frontiers version over the Discovery baseline.

Findings

New Frontiers mission increases flybys from 10 to 20

Enhanced instruments improve data collection and science return

Both missions aim to understand Io's tidal heating and evolution

Abstract

Jupiter's moon Io is a highly compelling target for future exploration that offers critical insight into tidal dissipation processes and the geology of high heat flux worlds, including primitive planetary bodies, such as the early Earth, that are shaped by enhanced rates of volcanism. Io is also important for understanding the development of volcanogenic atmospheres and mass-exchange within the Jupiter System. However, fundamental questions remain about the state of Io's interior, surface, and atmosphere, as well as its role in the evolution of the Galilean satellites. The Io Volcano Observer (IVO) would address these questions by achieving the following three key goals: (A) Determine how and where tidal heat is generated inside Io; (B) Understand how tidal heat is transported to the surface of Io; and (C) Understand how Io is evolving. IVO was selected for Phase A study through the NASA Discovery program in 2020 and, in anticipation of a New Frontiers 5 opportunity, an enhanced IVO-NF mission concept was advanced that would increase the Baseline mission from 10 flybys to 20, with an improved radiation design; employ a Ka-band communications to double IVO's total data downlink; add a wide angle camera for color and stereo mapping; add a dust mass spectrometer; and lower the altitude of later flybys to enable new science. This study compares and contrasts the mission architecture, instrument suite, and science objectives for Discovery (IVO) and New Frontiers (IVO-NF) missions to Io, and advocates for continued prioritization of Io as an exploration target for New Frontiers.