NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on a mission that is 1.8 billion miles long to study the icy moon of Jupiter known as Europa. Launch occurred at 12:06 PM EDT at Kennedy Space Center where the NASA planned to find out if Europa’s ocean harbors any potential life.
NASA’s Europa Clipper: The heaviest ocean world explorer spacecraft ever built outside of earth
NASA’s creating the biggest spacecraft for a single planetary expedition, the Europa Clipper, is the entity’s first mission intent on exploring the oceanic world other than the Earth itself. “The Europe Clipper team can now be congratulated in preparation for the first ocean exploration beyond the surface of the Earth,” said Bill Nelson, while also stating the positive relevance of the mission in seeking life beyond the planet. “It will enhance our understanding of the parameters of life within and outside the solar system. As far as where we can go, or what we can see, it is the unknown that will drive the Europa Clipper.”
The spacecraft which is en route to Jupiter is scheduled to fly by Mars, Earth two times in 2026 and in that sequence, use the gravity of the planets to speed itself up while minimizing the fuel required. It will also be entering the Orbit of Jupiter around April 2030 and carry out 49 flybys of the moon Europa, collecting information on the moon’s surface, liquids beneath the ice and the moon’s atmosphere.
Europa Clipper: NASA explores the enigmatic ocean concealed within Europa’s icy crust
Since the discovery of a significant ocean under the ice of Europa by NASA’s Galileo mission in the 1990s, the moon has intrigued researchers. The ocean of Europa which is larger than the combined area of all the oceans of the earth; may have the building blocks of life in water, energy and perhaps some organic material. The Europa Clipper mission will look at these factors in detail and investigate whether conditions on Europa may support life as we know it.
The Europa Clipper mission will consist of a package of scientific instruments that comprises of nine pieces of equipment inclusive of an ice-penetrating radar, a magnetometer, and a dust analyzer among other instruments that will examine various facets of Europa’s environment.
The various instruments will aid in the determination of the thickness of the ice shell, in the mapping and characterization of surface features and materials, and in the detection of water vapor that may be erupting from the subsurface ocean. “The instruments work together hand in hand to answer our most pressing questions about Europa,” said Robert Pappalardo, the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Europa Clipper confronts harsh radiation to reveal the secrets of Europa
The harsh radiation environment around Jupiter posed considerable difficulties, and the craft was built in such a way that it limited its exposure with only a brief flyby, protective enclosures on its electronics in the shape of tailored shields.
On each of its flybys, Clipper will obtain vital information concerning the surface and interior of Europa, information which, in turn, might inform future missions or even help in tactics for exploring the solar system in search of life.
The mission is likely to continue for nine more years, to the year 2031, and is expected to return a rich database about Europa’s atmosphere, its geology, and possible cryovolcanic activity. “This is the beginning of our exploratory efforts,” noted Jenny Kampmeier, a science systems engineer at JPL. “And all of it, every single bit, is going to impact our understanding of the nature of the universe and our region of it, if this is truly a life-harboring world.”
The Europa Clipper is the first of its kind, thriving under the auspices of a ten-year mission involving co-partners comprising of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, among other facilities. It seeks to enhance the exploration of ocean worlds and resolve the question: Are we alone?
