>>14298252Note that the solar options are all still more massive and expensive than nuclear even at Jupiter if you need the storage capacity for circularizing orbit around or landing on any of the moons. This proposal is for missions like Juno or Europa Clipper, a highly elliptic orbit of the planet, sacrificing the ability to circularize an orbit and get better sensor resolution in order to stay in sunlight, and unable to power a lander on any of the moons. Add mass for power storage, increase thruster power to compensate, and the mission mass gets worse than solar+chemical.
These mission proposals are about the desperate need to have any outer system science probes, no matter how half assed, in the face of political opposition to plutonium production. They're not actually any better.
