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Europa is one of Jupiter’s moons and is considered a promising place to search for life beyond Earth. NASA recently announced that the Europa Clipper spacecraft has reached a crucial stage and is on schedule for launch in October. The mission aims to investigate Jupiter’s moon to find out if humans can live on it.
Its launch window is set to open on October 10, reports CNN. The mission passed a key decision checkpoint, allowing it to proceed. It was a relief for the team after concerns were raised in May about potential problems with the spacecraft’s transistors.
Over a four-month period, the transistors were thoroughly evaluated at three key locations: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The team completed the tests on schedule, averting a delay of more than a year for the Europa exploration mission. Europa Clipper carries ten scientific instruments designed to investigate the possibility of life beneath Europa’s icy surface. It has now been given the green light for launch without changes to its objectives or route.
“This is the last major review before the launch process begins, and we’re very pleased to say that they passed that review with a clean slate today,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said, as quoted by CNN.
Jupiter: The Largest Planet
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is much larger than the other planets. Its magnetic field is much stronger than that of the Earth, which captures charged particles and increases their speed.
These fast-moving particles emit intense radiation that constantly hits Europa and the surrounding moons. As a result, spacecraft headed for Jupiter need specially protected electronics to withstand the radiation.
“This is an opportunity for us to not only find a habitable world billions of years ago, but to find a world that might still be habitable today,” Europa Clipper program scientist Kurt Niebuhr was quoted as saying by CNN.
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