AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MANEUVERING OF THE JUICE SPACECRAFT FROM A 500-KM TO A 200-KM ORBIT AROUND GANYMEDE AND THE RESULTING JANUS IMAGING PERFORMANCE

The ESA JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) will conduct the first long-term orbital exploration of Ganymede, a prime target for habitability. This thesis investigates the reduction of JUICE’s orbital altitude around Ganymede from 500 km to 200 km, with a dual focus on the required Δv budget and the dynamical stability of the final orbit, together with the imaging performance of the JANUS camera. A staged apoapsis-lowering strategy is designed in MATLAB and then implemented in GMAT with a realistic dynamical model, including Ganymede’s non-spherical gravity and third-body effects.