Reportedly NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will launch on october 10, 2024, in a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft aims to travel to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. The goal of this mission is to explore the ability of the moon to host life by analyzing its icy surface and the ocean thought to be located beneath it. On its official X (formerly twitter) handle, nasa Europa Clipper wrote, “Our mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa remains on track, with a launch period opening on october 10. We recently conducted extensive testing of our spacecraft’s transistors, and results suggest they’re ready to support our baseline mission.
According to nasa, “Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa that could support life.” As part of the baseline mission with the expected arrival at Jupiter in 2030, Europa Clipper spacecraft is set to conduct numerous close flybys of Europa, collecting detailed measurements to study the moon’s characteristics. As it orbits Jupiter, the spacecraft will execute nearly 50 flybys of Europa, reaching closest-approach altitudes as low as 25 kilometres above the surface. Each flyby will focus on a different location, allowing it to scan almost the entire moon.
According to nasa, Europa Clipper is the space agency’s largest spacecraft ever built for a planetary mission, featuring extensive solar arrays and radar antennas. These large solar arrays are designed to harness sufficient sunlight for the spacecraft’s power requirements while operating in the Jupiter system, which is over five times farther from the sun than Earth. Standing at approximately 16 feet in height, the spacecraft measures more than 100 feet across when its arrays are fully deployed. It has a dry mass of 3,241 kg without any propellant in its tanks.
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