Probing the surface of Ganymede by means of bistatic radar with the JUICE mission

Probing the surface of Ganymede by means of bistatic radar with the JUICE mission

Brighi Giancorrado

Abstract. Scheduled to get to the Jovian system in 2031, the ESA mission JUICE will explore Jupiter and its icy moons with unprecedented detail. Among other radar systems, the JUICE radio science experiment (3GM) will have the technical capability to probe the uppermost few meters of Ganymede’s surface carrying out bistatic observations of the moon. In this work, we present a preliminary assessment of X-band downlink bistatic observations of Ganymede by means of JUICE High Gain Antenna during part of its final orbital phase around the moon. For the chosen time window, terrains between 60° N and 60° S appear to produce detectable echoes under the assumption of Ganymede reflecting as a water-ice rich perfectly conducting sphere. For the future activity of the 3GM experiment, more detailed surveys will be extended to the whole mission, comparing different available antennas and frequency bands, and accounting for the priority of different instruments and scientific objectives.

Keywords
JUICE, Ganymede, Bistatic Radar, RMS Surface Slope, Dielectric Constant

Published online 9/1/2023, 8 pages
Copyright © 2023 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: Brighi Giancorrado, Probing the surface of Ganymede by means of bistatic radar with the JUICE mission, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 33, pp 110-117, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644902677-17

The article was published as article 17 of the book Aerospace Science and Engineering

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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