Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch next month, and if successful, the orbiter will reach Jupiter in April 2030.
NASA’s Europa Clipper missionintended to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, will launch on schedule. As reported by the magazine NatureLaurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), expressed confidence during a press conference on September 9: “We are confident that our beautiful spacecraft and our competent team are ready for launch and for a complete science mission on Europa.”
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Europa Clipper
With a mass of more than 3.2 tons and an impressive structure of approximately 5 meters high and 30 meters wide with fully deployed solar panels, Europa Clipper is NASA’s spacecraft for a planetary mission. The launch is scheduled for next month, and if successful, the orbiter will reach Jupiter in April 2030. The mission will use nine scientific instruments to study both Europa’s icy crust and the ocean that scientists they suspect lies beneath it, with the aim of determining whether the moon could support life as we know it.
Previous missions
Previous missions have already suggested that beneath Europa’s icy surface there is a subterranean ocean of brine, with a volume of water that exceeds that of Earth’s oceans. The celestial body’s fractured and apparently young surface also indicates possible geological activity that could suggest a dynamic interior hot enough to sustain .
What will happen on Europa
Europa Clipper is designed to fly over the satellite 49 times, getting very close just 25 kilometers from the surface. However, it will face a significant challenge: traversing charged particles accelerated by Jupiter’s magnetic field, which is 20,000 times more powerful than Earth’s. For this reason, the spacecraft’s electronics will need to be able to withstand radiation.
NASA tests
In May, NASA launched an investigation into whether the spacecraft’s transistors were at risk of malfunctioning due to radiation. After four months of intensive testing, conducted by JPL, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the agency concluded that the spacecraft’s electronic circuits will function as intended. During the first half of the mission, the orbiter will be exposed to radiation from Jupiter only one day out of 21. This interval will allow the transistors to partially self-repair through a process called annealing, in which they are gently heated to recover from the damage caused from radiation.
