{"id":511692,"date":"2026-06-21T22:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T22:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511692\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T22:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T22:29:10","slug":"trajectory-design-for-a-titan-enceladus-plume-sampling-pseudo-orbiter-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511692\/","title":{"rendered":"Trajectory Design For A Titan-Enceladus Plume Sampling Pseudo-orbiter Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Trajectory<\/p>\n

\n South polar stereographic projection of the Enceladus flybys for the Case 1 trajectory obtained in full fidelity and with all constraints. Numbered markers indicate each flyby and are placed at the point of closest approach, while the altitude evolution through the flyby hyperbola is mapped with a colorbar. \u2014 Acta Astronautica <\/p>\n

The exploration of the Saturnian system, and in particular the plumes and subsurface ocean of Enceladus, has been identified as a key science theme for ESA\u2019s Voyage 2050 program.<\/p>\n

To support this objective, this paper presents techniques to design pseudo-orbiter phases achieving plume sampling flybys. The analysis defines the problem\u2019s trajectory design search space, discusses the effect of distant Titan encounters and showcases that the circular-coplanar dynamics framework is not adequate for the preliminary design.<\/p>\n

These findings drive the development of a novel automated algorithm in real ephemerides based on the exploitation of Titan gravity assists to systematically generate pseudo-orbiter sequences to explore Enceladus and sample its plumes.<\/p>\n

The proposed methodology is validated by converging selected solutions in a high fidelity model using ESA\u2019s GODOT flight dynamics software.<\/p>\n

Trajectory design for a Titan-Enceladus plume sampling pseudo-orbiter mission<\/a>, Acta Astronautica (open access)<\/p>\n

Astrobiology,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South polar stereographic projection of the Enceladus flybys for the Case 1 trajectory obtained in full fidelity and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[218538,13837,218539,126215,218540,61,60,74041,218541,28545,82,13839,13271,35828],"class_list":["post-511692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-acta-astronautica","tag-enceladus","tag-esa-voyage-2050","tag-godot","tag-gravity-assist","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-plumes","tag-pseudo-orbiter","tag-sample","tag-science","tag-subsurface-ocean","tag-titan","tag-trajectory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}