NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is on a wild journey.
Begin this mission to explore the oceanic world Europa – possibly a moon of Jupiter that hugs the oceans double the volume All of Earth’s oceans were interrupted by the impressive Hurricane Milton, but their 1.8 billion mile journey is imminent. The spacecraft has approached Europa’s cracked icy shell nearly 50 times, using numerous high-resolution cameras, ground-penetrating radar, and even instruments that literally sample Europa’s particles thrown into space by small meteorites. We plan to do so. .
The mission is expected to collect enough information to identify whether conditions exist beneath Europa’s icy shell that could support life.
“This is probably one of the best places beyond Earth to look for life in the solar system,” said Cynthia Phillips, a planetary geologist at NASA and project staff scientist for the space agency’s European Clipper mission. he told Mashable.
The repeated reconnaissance mission requires the spacecraft to orbit Jupiter at the perfect time, intersecting Europa’s orbit, as NASA demonstrates in the animation below.
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Here’s what you see (a short ad plays first):
– Orange dot in the middle: Jupiter
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– Blue dot: europa
– Gray, red and yellow dots: Jupiter’s other three large moons – Io, Ganymede and Callisto respectively
– Magenta: This is because European clippers are “coming and going,” NASA explained.
There is also a timestamp in the top right that shows the mission’s planned flight from April to July 2032.
“The relative intensities of Jupiter’s radiation bands are shown in this diagram,” NASA explains, with darker red indicating more radiation. The orbits of both Europa and Europa Clipper are shown graphically.
Credit: NASA
This looping orbit is also designed to limit the spacecraft’s exposure to extreme radiation. “The charged particle environment at Europa’s location is enormous,” Phillips said.
That’s because Jupiter, a gas giant with 317 times the mass of Earth, generates a huge magnetic field that shoots it 600,000 to 2 million miles (1 million to 3 million kilometers) toward the sun. It is produced by the planet’s liquid metal core, which rotates to generate an electric current (the movement of charges creates a magnetic field). Crucially, this magnetic field traps and accelerates particles from the unrelenting solar wind (a rapidly moving stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun), forming a powerful radiation belt around Jupiter, as shown above. It is to do.
“Get out of there.”
(Decades ago, during the Voyager mission, NASA engineers worried about the spacecraft passing Jupiter. Sho. radiation dose 1,000 times lethal level. )
Not all of Europa Clipper’s electronics and software can be stored in its metal vault, so a relatively short orbit around the moon could potentially damage computer chips and electronics. It can limit the influence of certain charged particles. Each time it orbits Jupiter, the spacecraft will spend less than a day in the irradiation zone before plummeting. It looks like he won’t be back for 2-3 weeks.
“Get out of there,” Phillips said.
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After traveling through the solar system, the spacecraft is expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and begin its orbital dance through the system shortly thereafter. If it looks habitable, NASA plans to return to Europe and land a robot on the icy crust. Such an effort would involve drilling holes in the ice to see if the moon exists. people live.
