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.
“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.
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