Preliminary investigation of debris propagation dynamics in the Jovian system using the circular restricted 3- and N-body problems

Abstract

Jupiter’s many moons and the potentiality for water and life on these celestial bodies have significantly increased interest in the Jovian system. Missions to the Jovian system aim to limit “forward contamination” caused by human-made debris in order to preserve these moons for scientific discovery and exploration. Understanding the behavior and dynamics of debris in the system is vital to ensure limited impacts on the moons in the event of a debris-causing mishap. Additionally, the Jovian system presents highly complex dynamics based on the masses of the Galilean moons of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Incorporating the gravitational perturbations due to these additional system bodies ensures results that more accurately reflect real-world conditions. The Circular Restricted 3-Body Problem (CR3BP) and Circular Restricted N-Body Problem (CRNBP) may be used to propagate the motion of debris in the region, and this paper investigates the debris propagation dynamics associated with a catastrophic spacecraft breakup event occurring along trajectories within the orbital zone of Jupiter’s inner and Galilean moons. The NASA Standard Breakup Model (SBM) is used as the statistical means for debris generation for all analyses. This research presents four sample trajectories propagated using both the CR3BP and CRNBP models for comparison. Impacts on each of the four Galilean moons and four additional inner Jovian moons are analyzed for each sample trajectory case using 100 trials of the NASA SBM for each test. Preliminary results demonstrate that debris is mitigated in the out-of-plane and Europa-centric cases, while tested resonant trajectories result in up to 15% of produced debris impacting celestial bodies.