A Resistively Heated Electric Melt Probe for Europa: Melt Power, Descent Rate and Cable Energy Budget

This study sizes the system named in its title from stated physical relations and a stated environmental basis, and reports the result as SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED. The probe is a civilian science instrument intended to deliver oceanographic sensors and a sample inlet to the ice-ocean interface of Europa; it carries no payload other than measurement equipment and a communication relay. Every performance figure is computed by the deposited script from its inputs rather than asserted, and the headline outcomes include descent rate of 14.4 metres per day, total descent energy of 149.88 megawatt-hours and cable mass of 1,452 kilograms. Mass, power and energy budgets are assembled from components so they can be audited line by line, off-design behaviour is discussed openly, and the limits of the sizing are stated in full.