NASA’s largest spacecraft will search for life on Jupiter’s moon

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is designed to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, launched on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket at 12:06 on October 14 local time (23:00 on the same day and time in Hanoi) from the Space Center Kennedy of NASA in Florida, according to CNN. Initially, the ship was scheduled to take off on October 10 but was delayed due to Storm Milton. The team at the center assessed the launch facility after the storm and approved the spacecraft’s return to the launch pad.

Currently, the spacecraft has successfully entered orbit and NASA confirmed receiving signals from Europa Clipper about one hour and 10 minutes after launch, meaning the mission control team is maintaining contact with the spacecraft and receiving data. material. Europa Clipper’s large photovoltaic battery, which powers the craft throughout its journey, is deployed three hours after launch.

Europa Clipper will serve as NASA’s first spacecraft to study an ice-covered ocean world in the solar system. Its goal is to determine whether Jupiter’s moons could be hospitable to life. Clipper will carry nine instruments and a gravity experiment to understand the ocean beneath Europa’s thick icy shell. The moon’s ocean is estimated to contain twice as much liquid water as the ocean on Earth. According to Robert Pappalardo, a scientist working on the project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They will look at what makes Europa special, from its core, ocean and icy crust, to its very thin atmosphere and surrounding cosmic environment. The spacecraft also carried more than 2.6 million names of people from many countries around the world and a poem by American poet Laureate Ada Limón.

The $5.2 billion mission was born as a design in 2013, but the path to launch wasn’t always smooth. In May, engineers discovered parts of the spacecraft that may not be able to withstand Jupiter’s harsh radiation environment. However, the team was able to complete the necessary testing in time and received clearance in September to prepare for launch.

After launch, the spacecraft will travel 2.9 billion km and is expected to reach Jupiter in April 2030. Along the way, the spacecraft will fly past Mars, then Earth, taking advantage of each planet’s gravity to use less fuel and increase speed on the journey to Jupiter. Europa Clipper will operate in conjunction with Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), the European Space Agency’s April 2023 spacecraft, which will fly to study Jupiter and its largest moons in April. July 2031.

As the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, Clipper is 30.5 meters wide, larger than a basketball court, thanks to its photovoltaic battery pack. The panels will help collect sunlight to power equipment and electronics on board during the Europa exploration process.

After arriving, the spacecraft will conduct 49 close flybys of Europa instead of landing on the moon’s surface. Initially, the mission team worried Clipper would not be able to withstand Jupiter’s harsh environment because the giant planet’s magnetic field attracts and accelerates charged particles, creating radiation 20,000 times stronger than on Earth. . But the engineering team found a way to fix the problem.

Each flyby of Europa is expected to be 2-3 weeks apart. The spacecraft will spend nearly a day getting used to Jupiter’s harsh radiation before flying close to the planet. The time between flights can help the spacecraft’s transistors, which control the flow of electricity, recover from radiation exposure. Meanwhile, a specially designed dome made from titanium and aluminum will protect extremely sensitive electronic devices from radiation.

The close flybys will take Clipper 25 km above Europa’s surface, each time in a different location. This tactic allowed the spacecraft to map almost the entire moon. Once the mission is complete, Europa’s journey will end when the spacecraft crashes into the surface of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. Europa Clipper is not designed to search for life on Europa, but it will use a series of instruments to see if life could potentially exist inside the ocean.

Astronomers believe that elements necessary for life, including water, energy and chemical composition, may already exist on Europa. The spacecraft could collect evidence to learn whether those elements coexist in a way that would make the environment on Jupiter’s moon hospitable to life. The mission will study the exact thickness of the moon’s icy crust and how the frozen crust interacts with the ocean below, as well as understanding the Moon’s geology. Scientists want to know exactly what the ocean’s composition is on Europa and what causes the plume to rise from cracks in the ice, shooting particles into space. They also need to determine whether material from Europa’s surface drips into the ocean.

To conduct thorough research, Europa Clipper is equipped with cameras and spectrometers to capture high-resolution images and map the surface and thin atmosphere of Europa’s moon. The spacecraft also carries thermal equipment to find where the plume is active and where the ice is warmer. A magnetometer will study Europa’s magnetic field, confirming the existence of an ocean, its depth and salt concentration. The ice-penetrating radar will look beneath the ice crust, estimated to be 15 – 25 km thick, looking for evidence of an ocean. If there is an active spray column, mass spectrometers and dust analyzers can detect the particles they spray into space and understand their composition. All equipment will be turned on and operational during each close flyby to collect as much data as possible.