S space scientists on Thursday unveiled the interplanetary probe that NASA plans to send to one of Jupiter’s icy moons as part of humanity’s hunt for extraterrestrial life.
The Clipper spacecraft is due to lift off in October and head for Europa, one of dozens of moons orbiting the Solar System’s largest planet and the closest place in our celestial neighbor that might offer a place for life.
“One of the main questions NASA wants to know is, are we alone in space?” Bob Pappalardo, the mission’s project scientist, told AFP.
“If we were to discover the conditions for life, and then someday actually find life in a place like Europa, then that would mean that there are two examples of life in our own solar system: Earth and Europa.”
“That would be huge for understanding how common life can be in the universe.”
The $5 billion probe currently resides at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and is housed in a “clean room” — a sealed area accessible only to people wearing a head-to-toe cover.
The precautions are to ensure that the probe remains free of contaminants to avoid transporting terrestrial microbes to Europa.
After being transported to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Clipper is set to blast off aboard a Space X Falcon Heavy rocket and begin a more than five-year journey that includes a flyby of Mars to gain speed.
In 2031, it should be in orbit around Jupiter and Europa, where it will begin a detailed study of the moon, which scientists believe is covered in frozen water.
“We have instruments like cameras and spectrometers and magnetometers and radar that can … penetrate the ice, bounce off the liquid water and back to the surface to tell us how thick the ice is and where the liquid water is,” he said. Pappalardo.
Mission leaders don’t expect to find little green men floating in the water—in fact, they’re not even looking for life itself, just the conditions that could support it.
Scientists know from Earth’s extreme environments—like light-poor geothermal springs deep beneath the polar ice cap—that the tiny creatures can find purchase almost anywhere.
And conditions on Europa, which is nearly as large as Earth’s moon, could provide such a habitat, offering the tantalizing prospect that we are not alone—even in our own solar system.
“If moons around planets far away from stars can sustain life, then the number of possibilities around the solar system, around the universe, where life can be sustained, I think increases dramatically,” said Jordan Evans, Europa Clipper project manager. mission.
Challenges
The science isn’t easy—a powerful radiation field around Europa could impair the performance of the instruments, which will receive the equivalent of 100,000 chest X-rays each orbit around the moon.
The vast distances mean that when Clipper sends its data back, the signal will take 45 minutes to reach mission control.
And despite its massive solar array that deploys once in space, keeping Clipper powered will be a big challenge, Evans said.
“Right after launch (the solar panels) put out 23,000 watts … but when we’re out at Jupiter, so far from the Sun, they’re only putting out 700 watts,” he said.
“Close to Earth, they could power 20 houses continuously. And when we’re on Jupiter, just a few light bulbs and some small appliances.”
The mission, whose planning began in the late 1990s, is expected to end around 2034, when Clipper will likely have reached the end of its useful life.
After that, the probe will have one final port of call: Jupiter’s largest moon, said deputy project manager Tim Larson.
“Once we’re done with the science mission, the way we end up is by bumping into one of the other bodies in the Jovian system to get rid of the spacecraft,” he said.
“Right now the plan is to go to Ganymede.”
