Discussion of the driving aspects for the design and layout of the Europa project radiation vault

This paper discusses the challenges faced in packaging of radiation-sensitive electronics for the Europa project. In order to minimize shielding mass, an efficient layout of electronics within the vault is necessary to keep shielding area to a minimum while providing protection from the severe radiation environment surrounding Jupiter. Tight placement of internal electronics can, however, result in integration difficulties due to access problems for mounting hardware, routing constraints for harness management and vault wall penetrations, as well as thermal requirements for the enclosed electronics. Each of these aspects play into the configurations and integration requirements of the baseline Europa project vault. In order to study the potential geometries for the vault, conceptual physical models have been constructed, as well as multiple CAD based geometries in order to study potential layout configurations. These configurations have leveraged prior mission experience from the Curiosity rover as well as the JUNO radiation vault.