NASA launches a spacecraft to determine whether life can exist on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
With an emphasis on the sizable subsurface ocean thought to be hiding beneath its thick outer shell of ice, NASA launched a spacecraft from Florida on Monday to investigate whether conditions on Jupiter’s moon Europa are conducive to life.
Under bright skies, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched the U.S. space agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. The robotic solar-powered probe will travel roughly 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion km) in 5-1/2 years before entering orbit around Jupiter in 2030. Hurricane Milton caused the launch, which was originally scheduled for last week, to be postponed.
With its antennas and solar arrays fully deployed, it is larger than a basketball court, measuring about 100 feet (30.5 meters) in length and 58 feet (17.6 meters) in width. It weighs about 13,000 pounds (6,000 kg), making it the largest spacecraft NASA has constructed for a planetary mission.
Despite being only a quarter of Earth’s diameter, Europa, the fourth-largest of Jupiter’s 95 officially recognized moons, may have twice as much water in its vast global ocean of salty liquid water as Earth’s oceans. It is believed that life first appeared on Earth in the oceans.
Europa has been considered as a possible home for extraterrestrial life in our solar system. Its diameter of about 1,940 miles (3,100 km) is about 90% that of our moon. Its icy shell, which sits atop an ocean that is 40–100 miles (60–150 km) deep, is thought to be 10–15 miles (15–25 km) thick.
Although he clarified that this mission will not be a search for any actual living organisms, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free stated during a prelaunch briefing on Sunday that Europa has one of the most promising environments for potential habitability in our solar system, beyond Earth.
“Our understanding of our place in the universe and the study of astrobiology will be profoundly impacted by what we find on Europa,” Free stated.
Scientists think that life can exist on Europa because of the right conditions beneath its icy surface. According to Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s science mission directorate, “its conditions are water, energy, chemistry, and stability.”
A magnetic field that is roughly 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s surrounds Jupiter. As this magnetic field rotates, charged particles are caught and accelerated, producing radiation that could endanger spacecraft. Inside the Europa Clipper, NASA constructed a titanium and aluminum vault to shield its delicate electronics from the radiation.
Delivering a spacecraft that is both sensitive enough to collect the measurements required to study Europa’s environment and robust enough to endure the barrage of radiation from Jupiter is one of the Europa Clipper mission’s primary challenges, according to Connelly.
According to NASA, Europa Clipper has more than 6,060 pounds (2,750 kg) of propellant on board to reach Jupiter. The spacecraft was positioned inside the rocket’s protective nose cone for the launch.
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