NASA’s expensive Europa Clipper spacecraft is almost ready

The launch window for one of the most expensive robotic space missions in NASA history will open within a year, starting Tuesday. At a cost of 5000 million dollars..Europe Clipper“We will try to help scientists answer a bold question that matches their very high spending: Are there places under the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could harbor life?

Europa Clipper and the search for the possibility of life on Jupiter

Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and is more interesting to scientists searching for life. This icy world is home to a vast global ocean of liquid water beneath an icy crust. The Clipper spacecraft will sail across Europa nearly 50 times, getting as close as 25 kilometers (16 miles) to its icy surface to examine the moon with an advanced array of nine instruments.

said Jordan Evans, who leads the Europa Clipper spacecraft development team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. Ars Technica The mission is on track to depart for Jupiter during a 21-day planetary launch window beginning on October 10, 2024.

Engineers planning complex interplanetary trajectories have been able to pinpoint the exact moment at which Europa Clipper should take off. If it flies on the first day of the launch window, it will depart at 11:51 EST, according to Evans. This can be modified slightly when navigators determine the mission’s route.

“It’s a 13,000-pound (6,000-kilogram) spacecraft with 100-foot (30-meter) solar arrays, equipped with sensitive radars, and it has to operate simultaneously,” Evans said. “So he’s a monster.”

Evans spoke with Ars Technica Tuesday at Kennedy Space Center, the launch site of Europa Clipper, almost a year ago, and exactly one minute, before the mission was scheduled to lift off. Evans is on site this week, learning about SpaceX’s operations as the company prepares to launch the Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s “Psyche” mission to the asteroid that bears his name.

“Clipper is going very well,” Evans said, although he admitted the mission had its difficulties.

Obstacles before the launch of Europa Clipper

Officials had to overcome it Staff problems at JPL, which developed the Europa Clipper in parallel with at least four other important missions. And then a political battle took place What rocket will send it to the solar system. NASA leaders eventually ruled out launching the Clipper into the Space Launch System after engineers discovered that the vehicle could be damaged by vibrations caused by the rocket’s solid-fuel boosters.

In 2021, NASA selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket for this mission. The decision saved an estimated $2 billion, and the new trajectory design will allow Europe Clipper to take a more direct route to Jupiter than was originally thought possible when launching on a commercial rocket. This means that the probe will enter its orbit around Jupiter in 2030.

the The pandemic also complicated the task. Delivery dates for some of Clipper’s scientific instruments were delayed due to technical issues. But technicians assembling the spacecraft at JPL recently installed the final components needed to begin the final round of testing before it moves from the California lab to the launch site in Florida next month, Evans said Tuesday.