The JANUS camera onboard JUICE mission for Jupiter system optical imaging

Della Corte, Vincenzo; Schmitz, Nicole; Zusi, Michele; Castro, José Maria; Leese, Mark; Debei, Stefano; Magrin, Demetrio; Michalik, Harald; Palumbo, Pasquale; Jaumann, Ralf; Cremonese, Gabriele; Hoffmann, Harald; Holland, Andrew; Lara, Luisa Maria; Fiethe, Björn; Friso, Enrico; Greggio, Davide; Herranz, Miguel; Koncz, Alexander; Lichopoj, Alexander; Martinez-Navajas, Ignacio; Mazzotta Epifani, Elena; Michaelis, Harald; Ragazzoni, Roberto; Roatsch, Thomas; Rodrigo, Julio; Rodriguez, Emilio; Schipani, Pietro; Soman, Matthew and Zaccariotto, Mirco (2014). The JANUS camera onboard JUICE mission for Jupiter system optical imaging. In: Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, article no. 91433I.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056353

Abstract

JANUS (Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator) is the visible camera selected for the ESA JUICE mission to the Jupiter system. Resources constraints, S/C characteristics, mission design, environment and the great variability of observing conditions for several targets put stringent constraints on instrument architecture. In addition to the usual requirements for a planetary mission, the problem of mass and power consumption is particularly stringent due to the long-lasting cruising and operations at large distance from the Sun. JANUS design shall cope with a wide range of targets, from Jupiter atmosphere, to solid satellite surfaces, exosphere, rings, and lightning, all to be observed in several color and narrow-band filters. All targets shall be tracked during the mission and in some specific cases the DTM will be derived from stereo imaging. Mission design allows a quite long time range for observations in Jupiter system, with orbits around Jupiter and multiple fly-bys of satellites for 2.5 years, followed by about 6 months in orbit around Ganymede, at surface distances variable from 104 to few hundreds km. Our concept was based on a single optical channel, which was fine-tuned to cover all scientific objectives based on low to high-resolution imaging. A catoptric telescope with excellent optical quality is coupled with a rectangular detector, avoiding any scanning mechanism. In this paper the present JANUS design and its foreseen scientific capabilities are discussed.

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