Modeling of Contamination Vent Path for Outgassing Components Underneath Thermal Blankets on Europa Clipper

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will conduct a detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa and investigate whether the icy moon could host conditions suitable for life. To perform these tasks, the spacecraft will carry several scientific instruments, including cameras, mass spectrometers, radars, magnetometers, plasma sensors and dust analyzer. These state-of-the-art instruments are very sensitive to molecular contamination; hence it is important to properly design preferential venting paths that minimize the transport of contaminants to the instruments sensitive surfaces. The JPL Contamination Control Group developed a physics-based approach to quantify the amount of contaminants escaping from the thermal blankets vents. This approach includes a thorough design of the thermal blankets and vents in the Europa Clipper geometrical model and a detailed analysis of the transport of contaminants from outgassing components underneath the thermal blankets to the vents. The physics-based thermal blankets venting model enhances the ability to assess and control outgassing contamination on Europa Clipper, and subsequently to properly design venting locations that provide a preferential escape path for outgassed molecules. The model also provides more accurate results compared to the historic approach (area ratio) widely used in literature to estimate outgassing from thermal blankets vents.