Background
NASA has identified Uranus as the likely target for its next flagship mission in the late 2030s. This IR focuses on four SwRI instrument families with flight heritage and two nascent instruments seeking to retire risks and advance TRL, increasing the chances of one or more successful proposals once the Announcement of Opportunity is released.
Approach
The plasma team have developed a new electro-optics design that increases the field-of-view compared to previous SwRI-led instruments. Initial assessment of the mechanical and power resources needs to accommodate this has been provided. The mass spectrometer (MS) team has focused on determining which of the available MS designs are most suitable for the mission in terms of performance vs. technical resources using simulations and laboratory tests. The Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) team has worked on procuring and testing new replacement parts for obsolete parts in the UVS heritage design. The magnetometer (MAG) team is focusing on reducing power and mass requirements for their instrument and verifying its performance with a newly fabricated prototype. The Visible (VIS) team determined an optimal path forward for an imager and attended numerous workshops, co-convening sessions on UOP science objectives and instrumentation. The energetic particle (EP) team focused on literature review and re-analysis of Voyager 2 observations to prioritize measurement requirements.
Accomplishments
The plasma team is completing trade studies on current SwRI-based designs and identified a novel sensor head design which significantly reduces the size and power and completed several performance models. The MS team selected ZZTOF for probe science and achieved first light on the laboratory prototype, while preparing for laboratory testing of inlet pressure regulation. The UVS team completed the fabrication of a new AMP board and is preparing it for environmental testing, while more fully characterizing the radiation environment and its effects on the sensor. The MAG team has updated their design, procured a block of permalloy, fabricated components for two axes of the prototype sensor, and conducted initial performance characterization of those axes that demonstrate expected performance like previous sensors. After attending the IPM workshop, the VIS identified a Doppler Imager as a compelling Uranian instrument to investigate. DIs are highly sought after for UOP science and there is no heritage planetary DI available. The EP team determined the required observables for EP sensors at Uranus and presented these to the community at workshops and in papers.