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Updated: Aug 7, 2025

Simulating Imaging of Large Scale Radio Arrays on the Lunar Surface
Published on: July 30, 2020
A comprehensive investigation of the Galilean moon, Io, by tracing mass and energy flows
1Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Io is the most volcanically-active object in the solar system. The moon ejects a tonne per second of sulphur-rich gases that fill the vast magnetosphere of Jupiter and drives million-amp electrical currents that excite strong auroral emissions. We present the case for including a detailed study of Io within Voyage 2050 either as a standalone mission or as a contribution to a NASA New Frontiers mission, possibly within a Solar System theme centred around current evolutionary or dynamical processes. A comprehensive investigation will provide answers to many outstanding questions and will simultaneously provide information on processes that have formed the landscapes of several other objects in the past. A mission investigating Io will also study processes that have shaped the Earth, Moon, terrestrial planets, outer planet moons, and potentially extrasolar planets. The aim would be simple - tracing the mass and energy flows in the Io-Jupiter system.
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