NASA’s spacecraft is ready to depart for Jupiter and its moon Europa, one of our best bets for discovering extraterrestrial life.
Europa Clipper will peer beneath the moon’s icy crust, where the ocean is thought to be flopping close to the surface. It does not look for life, but rather determines whether the conditions present can support life. Another mission will be needed to wash away the microorganisms lurking there.
“This is an opportunity for us to explore a world that might be habitable today, right now, rather than a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago,” said program scientist Kurt Niebuhr. said.
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Equipped with giant solar panels, Clipper has become the largest spacecraft built by NASA to explore another planet. It would take five and a half years to reach Jupiter and sneak within 26 miles of Europa’s surface, much closer than any other spacecraft.
This illustration provided by NASA depicts the Europa Clipper spacecraft on the moon, Europa, with Jupiter in the background. (NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology, via AP)
Liftoff is targeted for this month from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Mission cost: $5.2 billion.
Europa, the superstar among Jupiter’s many moons
Europa, one of Jupiter’s 95 known moons, is about the same size as our moon. It is covered by an ice sheet estimated to be between 10 and 15 miles thick. Scientists believe that this frozen crust hides an ocean more than 130 miles deep. The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered what looks like a geyser erupting from the Earth’s surface. Discovered by Galileo in 1610, Europa is one of Jupiter’s four so-called Galilean moons, along with Ganymede, Io, and Callisto.
In search of conditions that support life
What kind of life could Europa harbor?As we know, in addition to water, organic compounds are necessary for life and as a source of energy. In Europa’s case, it could be a thermal vent on the ocean floor. Deputy project scientist Bonnie Blatty imagines that any life will be as primitive as the bacterial life that arose in Earth’s deep ocean vents. “We don’t know from this mission because we can’t look that deep,” she said. Unlike a mission to Mars, where habitability is one of the many questions, Clipper’s only job is to determine whether the moon can support life in its oceans, or perhaps pockets of water in its ice. is to check.
super large spaceship
With its solar wings and antenna extended, the Clipper is about the size of a basketball court (more than 100 feet end to end) and weighs about 13,000 pounds. Because Jupiter is far from the Sun, it will require extremely large solar panels. The camper-sized body packs nine scientific instruments, including an ice-penetrating radar, a camera to map virtually the entire moon, and tools to understand the contents of Europa’s surface and tenuous atmosphere. are. This name recalls the fast sailing ships of centuries past.
This illustration provided by NASA depicts the Europa Clipper spacecraft on the surface of the moon Europa in the foreground and Jupiter in the background. (NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology, via AP)
Orbiting Jupiter and passing Europa
The round trip distance to Jupiter is 1.8 billion miles. To gain further oomph, the rover is scheduled to pass Mars early next year, and then Earth at the end of 2026. The spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and begin scientific research the following year. While orbiting Jupiter, it intersects with Europa 49 times. The mission will end in 2034 with a planned impact on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon and solar system.
Europa flyby poses huge radiation risk
There is more radiation around Jupiter than anywhere else in the solar system, except for the Sun. Europa poses a particular threat to spacecraft because it passes through Jupiter’s radiation belts as it orbits the gas giant. As such, the Clipper’s electronics are stored in a vault with dense aluminum and zinc walls. All this radiation will wipe out all life on Europa’s surface. But it could split water molecules and release oxygen into the ocean, perhaps to fuel marine life.
Earlier this year, NASA panicked that many of the spacecraft’s transistors might not be able to withstand the intense radiation. But after months of analysis, engineers concluded that the mission could proceed as planned.
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, was photographed in March 1979 with its two moons, Io on the left and Europa on the right. This image was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. (Space Frontier/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Other visitors to Jupiter and Europa
NASA’s twin Pioneer spacecraft and later two Voyager spacecraft flew past Jupiter in the 1970s. Voyager provided the first detailed pictures of Europa, but from quite a distance. NASA’s Galileo spacecraft repeatedly flew close to the Moon in the 1990s, passing distances of up to 124 miles. NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which is still active around Jupiter, has been added to the Europa photo album. Arriving at Jupiter a year after Clipper is the European Space Agency’s Juice spacecraft, which launched last year.
Possibilities of Ganymede and other oceanic worlds
Like Europa, Jupiter’s giant moon Ganymede is thought to have an underground ocean. But its frozen shell is much thicker, perhaps up to 160 miles thick, and the environment beneath it is more difficult to explore. Callisto’s ice sheet could become even thicker and hide an ocean. Saturn’s moon Enceladus has geysers erupting from it, but it’s much further away than Jupiter. Saturn’s moon Titan is also suspected of having an underground ocean. Although no ocean worlds have been identified outside of our solar system, scientists believe they exist out there and may be relatively common.
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A message contained in a space bottle
Like many robot explorers before him, Clipper carries a message from Earth. A triangular metal plate is attached to the electronic vault. One side has a design labeled “Words of Water”, representing the words for water in 104 languages. The other side is engraved with a poem about the moon by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon and a silicon chip with the names of the 2.6 million people who have signed up to ride on their behalf.
