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A NASA spacecraft will depart for distant Europa next week – the first mission to study Jupiter’s moon in detail. Liftoff is scheduled for October 10 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with an estimated arrival in 2030. The launch date was approved by NASA on Monday and the goal of the mission is to “determine whether Europa has suitable conditions to support life”.
“Europa Clipper will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion km) to reach Jupiter in April 2030. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, and conduct 49 close flybys of Europa. In each orbit, the spacecraft will spend less than a day in the dangerous radiation zone near Europa before flying back out. After two to three weeks, this process will be repeated. The spacecraft carries nine science instruments and a gravity experiment that uses telecommunications systems. NASA’s website states that all science instruments will work together on every pass.
Questions about the reliability of transistors on the Europa Clipper spacecraft arose earlier this year when similar problems surfaced elsewhere. With a tight launch window, NASA rushed to run tests to verify that the electronic parts could survive the $5 billion mission to determine whether the suspected ocean beneath Europa’s icy crust could harbor life. May or may not be suitable for.
(with inputs from agencies)
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