Europa Clipper, the largest spacecraft that NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, is completing operational tests to begin its historic trip in October to Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter and where it is believed that “there are all the elements to house life”. The spacecraft, 5 meters high and 30.5 meters wide, will investigate in detail Europa, one of Jupiter’s best-known moons covered in a thick layer of ice and with an internal ocean twice as large as the whole of the Earth’s oceans.
“What interests us is knowing if there is a possibility that a type of life exists (on Jupiter’s moon)“Tim Larson, deputy director of the Europa Clipper Project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told EFE.
This laboratory, located in Pasadena (California), allowed EFE access to the ‘clean room’, where Europa Clipper is located and which must be entered with special clothing, without any type of lotion or makeup so as not to contaminate the ship. It looks like a Hollywood set.
It is believed that Europa houses the three elements – liquid water, the necessary chemistry and a source of energy – essential for life to develop and be maintained.
Larson cautioned that while Europa Clipper is not a life detection mission as such, understanding the habitability of the Jupiter moon will help better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential to find it beyond our planet.
The long road to Jupiter
Started in 2013, dozens of scientists who have worked on its development have joined the mission and celebrated that the ship recently passed its design tests and is getting ready to be sent in May to the Kennedy Space Center, in central Florida, where will be finished assembling.
Equipped with nine powerful scientific instruments, Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on October 10.
It will take the spacecraft at least five and a half years to travel 2.9 billion kilometers and reach Jupiter, and another year to adjust its orbit and begin its studies in 2030, according to NASA estimates.
Colombian space engineer Ricardo Restrepo, who is part of the team that designed the spacecraft’s route, explained to EFE that it will orbit Jupiter and “will periodically fly over Europe” to take the data, which it will send to Earth days later, while taking the opportunity to charge its solar panels.
The mission is expected to perform 50 flybys of the Jupiter moon over a four-year period.
It is not ruled out that the spacecraft could extend its research as happened to the Galileo mission, which explored the frozen surface of Europa more than 20 years ago.
Restrepo is confident that Europa Clipper will achieve its goal because it is highly capable and radiation tolerant. “It is the most complex, most expensive, and largest ever built”, he stressed.
The portal to life
The expectation about the mission is not only for the scientific discoveries that can be achieved but for its meaning for humanity. “We are going to go for the first time as humans exclusively to look for life outside of Earth.”said Restrepo.
That is why the Europa Clipper will carry a message on a plaque engraved on both sides that includes the poem ‘In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europe’, by the award-winning writer of Mexican roots Ada Limón, which encourages appreciation and exploration of mysteries. of the Earth that unite us in the face of the immensity of the Universe.
It also includes visual representations of the sound waves formed by the word ‘water’ in 103 languages, including indigenous languages and sign language.
In addition, it will carry a ‘bottle’ with the name of more than two million people, who joined a campaign to celebrate the mission.
“This ship is not going to represent NASA or a few engineers but humanity itself,” Restrepo pointed out.
