The gravity field of Enceladus from the three gravity flybys

• Main Authors: IESS, Luciano, PARISI, MARZIA, DUCCI, MARCO, R. A. Jacobson, J. W. Armstrong, S. W. Asmar, J. I. Lunine, D. J. Stevenson, P. Tortora
• Other Authors: Iess, Luciano, Parisi, Marzia, Ducci, Marco, R. A., Jacobson, J. W., Armstrong, S. W., Asmar, J. I., Lunine, D. J., Stevenson, P., Tortora
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: gravity; Enceladu; space exploratio; space mission; space geodesy; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11573/539891

The Cassini spacecraft carried out gravity measurements of the small Saturnian moon Enceladus during three close flybys on April 28, 2010, November 30, 2010 and May 2, 2012 (designated E9, E12 and E19), at the low altitudes of 100, 48 and 70 km to maximize the accelerations exerted by the moon on the spacecraft. The goals of these observations were the determination of the gravitational quadrupole and the search for a North-South asymmetry in the gravity field, controlled primarily by the spherical harmonic coefficient C30. The estimation of Enceladus’ gravity field is especially complex because of the small surface gravity (0.11 m/s2), the short duration of the gravitational interaction and the small number of available flybys. In addition to the gravitational accelerations, the spacecraft was also subject to small but non-negligible drag when it flew through the plume emitted from the south pole of the satellite. This effect occurred during the two south polar flybys E9 and E19. The inclusion of these non-gravitational accelerations proved to be crucial to attain a stable solution for the gravity field. Our estimation relied entirely on precise range rate measurements enabled by a coherent, two-way, microwave link at X-band (7.2-8.4 GHz). Measurement accuracies of 10 micron/s at 60 s integration times were attained under favorable conditions, thanks also to an advanced tropospheric calibration system. The data were fitted using the MONTE orbit determination code, recently developed by JPL for deep space navigation. In addition to the satellite degree 2 gravity field and C30, the solution included the state vector of the spacecraft (one for each flyby) and corrections to the mass and the initial orbital elements of Enceladus. The effect of the drag in E9 and E19 was modeled either as an unknown, impulsive, vectorial delta-V at closest approach, or by using density profiles from models of the plume and solving for the aerodynamic coefficient of the spacecraft. Both approaches led to statistically identical ...