Telecommunication considerations for Jupiter icy moons orbiter (JIMO)

The Jupiter icy moons orbiter (JIMO) high capability instrument (HCI) concept study examined a hypothetical suite of remote-sensing instruments that could take advantage of the large amounts of power available from a space nuclear reactor, and provide orders of magnitude of improvement in resolution and data return. A team of engineers at The Aerospace Corporation carried out an analysis to provide telecommunication considerations for data return from this candidate instrument suite that may be applicable to JIMO or other high-power space missions. This paper provides the communication system options that were proposed by our team. These options were based on instrument data rates, visibility time of the satellites to Earth, the time lines of the missions, and the appropriate technology readiness level (TRL) of the systems proposed. Three viable options for JIMO data return are presented in this paper.