In this image released by NASA, NASA’s Europa Clipper is seen on Aug. 21, 2024, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians deployed and tested the giant solar panels to ensure they would work in flight. Credit: Frank Michaux/NASA via AP
NASA approved the planned launch next month to Jupiter’s moon Europa on Monday after reviewing the spacecraft’s ability to withstand the intense radiation there.
Questions about the reliability of the Europa Clipper spacecraft’s transistors were raised earlier this year after similar problems elsewhere. With a tight launch window, NASA rushed to conduct tests to ensure the electronics could survive the $5 billion mission to determine whether the suspected ocean beneath Europa’s icy crust could support life.
Liftoff is still scheduled for October 10 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. NASA has three weeks to launch the spacecraft before waiting more than a year for a new proper planetary alignment; the spacecraft must pass by Mars and then Earth to receive a gravity assist.
Jordan Evans, the project manager, said the transistors, located in circuits throughout the spacecraft, are expected to degrade when Europa Clipper is exposed to the most intense radiation during its 49 flybys of the moon. But they should recover in the three weeks between each encounter, said Evans of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Lab teams across the country came to this conclusion after testing around the clock for the past four months.
This NASA image, processed by Kevin M. Gill, shows Jupiter’s moon Europa, captured by the Juno spacecraft on Sept. 29, 2022, with north to the left. Research released Monday, March 4, 2024, suggests there’s less oxygen on the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa than previously thought — and that could impact life that might lurk in the moon’s subsurface ocean. Credit: Kevin M. Gill/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI via AP, File
“The project is very confident that it will be able to carry out the initial Europa exploration mission as planned,” Evans said. “We are ready for Jupiter.”
It will take Europa Clipper six years to reach Jupiter, where it will orbit the gas giant every three weeks. Dozens of flybys of Europa are planned at distances of up to 25 kilometers, allowing cameras and other instruments, including ice-penetrating radar, to map nearly the entire moon.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft ever built by NASA to study another planet, measuring more than 30 meters long with its solar panels deployed.
© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Quote:NASA spacecraft to study Jupiter’s moon’s subsurface ocean cleared for October launch (2024, September 10) retrieved September 10, 2024, from
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content is provided for informational purposes only.
