Nasa to launch Europa Clipper mission today, here's all you need to know

The Nasa's latest mission aims to investigate Europa's surface to explore the potential for life beneath the icy crust of Jupiter's moon

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) is set to launch its most ambitious planetary mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, aiming to explore the potential for life in the solar system's most intriguing ocean worlds. The launch of the Europa Clipper space will take place on Monday. 

The spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. It is the largest spacecraft Nasa has ever built for any planetary mission. Reportedly, with solar arrays extended, it spans a basketball court (100 feet, or 30.5 meters, tip to tip). The journey of the Europa spacecraft wouldn't be a straight one but a long one, i.e., 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometres) as the Europa clipper will loop around Mars and then Earth, gaining speed as it swings past. 

 

The Europa Clipper is likely to launch at 12.06 pm EDT or 9.36 pm IST on October 14, 2024, and the mission has two potential launch windows from now till November 6. Nasa needs to be vigilant as both opportunities are instantaneous as there is only one exact timing per day when the launch may occur. Plans to launch Europa Clipper on October 5 were delayed due to the impacts of Hurricane Milton.

What will Europa Clipper do?

The $5 billion mission aims to investigate potential life beneath the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa. 

According to scientists, Europa contains a vast subsurface ocean that has more water than all the Earth's oceans combined which is a key target in the search for extraterrestrial life.

The mission is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. The development of the Europa Clipper mission is led by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in partnership with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

Europa Clipper to join Juno and JUICE

There have already been two spacecraft orbiting Jupiter: NASA’s Juno orbiting Jupiter since July 2016 and ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) launched in April 2023. The Europa Clipper will complete the triad of missions, and it is expected to arrive in Jupiter in April 2030, beating JUICE to its destination by about a year, all thanks to differing trajectories. 

What will Nasa's Europa Clipper do?

Nasa's spacecraft, Europa Clipper, is equipped with nine state-of-the-art instruments.

It includes high-resolution cameras, magnetometers, and an ice-penetrating radar, all designed to study the composition, geology, and nature of Europa's ice shell and underlying ocean. 

Once reaching Jupiter, Europa Clipper will perform 49 close flybys of Europa, swooping as low as 16 miles about the moon's surface. Then while orbiting, the spacecraft will scan nearly the entire moon while minimising its exposure to Jupiter's intense radiation belts. 

The mission faced a brief delay due to Hurricane Milton. However, Nasa officials have confirmed that damage to the Kennedy Space Center was manageable allowing the launch preparations to proceed. 

The Europa mission represents a major step in our quest to understand the potential for life beyond Earth. It paves the way for future exploration of ocean worlds in our solar system.