Europa is a premier target for advancing both planetary science and astrobiology, as well as for opening a new window into the burgeoning field of comparative oceanography. The potentially habitable subsurface ocean of Europa may harbor life, and the globally young and comparatively thin ice shell of Europa may contain biosignatures that are readily accessible to a surface lander. Europa’s icy shell also offers the opportunity to study tectonics and geologic cycles across a range of mechanisms and compositions. Here we detail the goals and mission architecture of the Europa Lander mission concept, as developed from 2015 through 2020. The science was developed by the 2016 Europa Lander Science Definition Team (SDT), and the mission architecture was developed by the preproject engineering team, in close collaboration with the SDT. In 2017 and 2018, the mission concept passed its mission concept review and delta-mission concept review, respectively. Since that time, the preproject has been advancing the technologies, and developing the hardware and software, needed to retire risks associated with technology, science, cost, and schedule.

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POSTERSMethod: HRCT of temporal bone was performed using simultaneous acquirement of 64 sections with a slice thickness of 0.5 mm. Corresponding image data were uploaded into software Amira 4.1 for segmentation and three-dimensional reconstruction. A comparison of the surface topography of the CT reconstructed ear and the natural ear was made.

12Abstract In support of the Cruise Stage form EntryVehicle separation event for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), two 3/8" aluminum tubes that are part of the Heat Rejection System (HRS) must be cut and retracted. Due to size and stiffness of the tubes to be retracted and the mass and volume constraints on MSL, the typical preloaded spring retraction mechanism was deemed to not be the ideal mechanism. Instead a pyrotechnic thruster was designed to perform the job. This thruster was baselined from the design details of an existing 5/8" cable cutter, but highly modified to meet the needs of the retraction device. Due to the added kinetic energy of an increased stroke, as compared to the cutter, a new attenuator to absorb the residual energy at the end of stroke had to be designed to keep the thruster housing from yielding. Volume constraints limited the size of the attenuator so the typical honeycomb crushable was not an option. Instead a collapsing thin walled tube design was analyzed, tested and implemented. Part of the analysis and testing was the process of correlating the difference between static and dynamic flow stresses of the attenuator material as well as the collapse modes of the cylinder walls. Upon completion of the preliminary attenuator design, proof of concept testing was done to validate the design of the retraction system such that the thruster has adequate capability to retract the HRS lines away from the Entry Vehicle. In that process the attenuator was also validated to absorb the majority of the thruster's energy as not to yield any other components of the devise.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a scientific mission that will deliver a roving science platform to the surface of Mars. In order to accomplish this mission, the rover must be safely transported from the surface of Earth to the surface of Mars. To achieve this, a Launch Vehicle, Cruise Stage, Entry Vehicle, which is comprised of an Aeroshell,Parachute, and Descent Stage must be employed. The Cruise Stage, Descent Stage and Rover are being designed and assembled at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, while the Aeroshell is being designed and built by Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colorado, and the Parachute is being designed and built by Pioneer Aerospace in South Windsor, Connecticut. The primary function of the Cruise stage is to interface to the Launch Vehicle, and provide the structural load path to the Entry Vehicle, during the launch phase of the mission and then to provide power, telecommunications, navigation and propulsion for the 9 month journey from Earth to Mars, and lastly to orient the Entry Vehicle for Mars Atmospheric entry before burning up in the Mars atmosphere. The Cruise Stage design was based on the heritage Cruise Stages from the Mars Pathfinder (MPF) and Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Missions. These spacecrafts were composed of a similar architecture and provided the same functions, However both MPF and MER Cruise Stages were a 2.75m diameter by 10cm high spacecraft while the MSL Cruise Stage is 4.40m diameter by 60cm high spacecraft. This size is driven by the size of the MSL Rover which will be the largest vehicle delivered to the Mars surface to date. The key challenges in the MSL cruise stage reside in reacting to the loads from a 3400kg Entry Body, interfacing to a new launch vehicle, meeting the new alignment requirements for GNC, defining the structure configuration and assembly process, and the design and build of the assembly tooling for such a large structure. This paper describes the design and assembly of the Cruise Stage along with how the key challenges were met. 12