 "Nasa launches Europa Clipper to explore signs of life on Jupiter's moon")
Nasa has launched a groundbreaking mission to investigate Jupiter and its moon, Europa, one of the prime locations in the search for life beyond Earth.
The spacecraft, named Europa Clipper, launched on Monday, is designed to study the moon’s icy surface and the subsurface ocean believed to exist beneath.
It was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center, with the mission costing $5.2 billion.
Europa Clipper will not directly search for life, but will assess whether Europa's environment could support it. The spacecraft will examine the moon’s ice-covered ocean, located relatively close to the surface. Although it won't hunt for microorganisms, its findings may pave the way for future missions aimed at detecting life.
Nasa programme scientist Curt Niebur highlighted the mission's importance, stating: “We are not just exploring a world that was habitable billions of years ago, but a world that could be habitable today – right now.”
Why is Jupiter’s moon Europa a key target?
Europa, one of Jupiter’s 95 known moons, is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and is covered by an ice sheet estimated to be 10 to 15 miles (15 to 24 km) thick. Beneath this frozen surface, scientists believe a vast ocean exists, potentially up to 80 miles (120 km) deep. This ocean could be a rich environment for life due to the presence of water, organic compounds, and energy sources such as thermal vents on the ocean floor.
Although Europa was discovered by Galileo in 1610, interest in its potential to support life has grown in recent decades, especially with evidence from the Hubble Space Telescope suggesting geysers erupting from its surface.
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Europa Clipper- largest spacecraft of its kind
The Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft Nasa has built for planetary exploration, primarily due to its massive solar panels. These panels are necessary to generate sufficient power, given the long distance between Jupiter and the Sun. It will take five- and-a-half years to reach its destination, and Clipper will approach Europa at a distance of just 16 miles (25 km) from its surface – a much closer encounter than any previous mission.
The structure and capabilities of Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper is a massive spacecraft, with solar wings and antennas stretching over 100 feet (30 metres) in length. The main body of the spacecraft, similar in size to a camper van, houses nine scientific instruments. These include radar to penetrate Europa’s icy shell, cameras to map its surface, and devices to analyse its atmosphere and composition.
Its design draws inspiration from fast sailing ships of past centuries, a nod to the long journey ahead.
Timeline of Nasa spacecraft’s journey to Jupiter
The spacecraft will travel a distance of 1.8 billion miles (3 billion km) to reach Jupiter, making several flybys of Mars and Earth to gain the speed required. Europa Clipper is expected to reach Jupiter in 2030 and will begin its scientific operations in 2031. Over the course of the mission, it will fly by Europa 49 times.
The mission is scheduled to conclude in 2034 with a planned crash into Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon.
The future of Europa exploration
The Europa Clipper mission is part of Nasa’s ongoing efforts to explore Jupiter's moons. Other active missions include Nasa’s Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, and the European Space Agency's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE), launched in April 2023. Europa Clipper is expected to reach Jupiter before JUICE due to differing flight paths, solidifying its role in the triad of missions aimed at understanding Jupiter and its moons.
This mission is being managed by Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).