NASA's Europa Clipper: Miles Down, Instruments Deploying
NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, launched on October 14, 2024, is en route to Jupiter's moon Europa, set to perform 49 flybys starting in 2031 to investigate potential life.
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NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, launched on October 14, 2024, is currently en route to Jupiter's moon Europa, having traveled 13 million miles (20 million kilometers) from Earth. The spacecraft is set to reach Mars in March 2025 for a gravity assist maneuver. It is equipped with a suite of scientific instruments, two of which have already deployed successfully. The magnetometer's boom has extended 28 feet, and several antennas for the radar instrument have also been deployed. These instruments will gather data to assess the potential for life in Europa's subsurface ocean. The spacecraft will perform a series of 49 flybys of Europa starting in 2031, aiming to investigate the moon's icy shell, its composition, and geological characteristics. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in collaboration with other NASA centers. The spacecraft's engineering data is currently being monitored, with further instrument checks planned through December and January. Following its Mars flyby, the spacecraft will return to Earth for another gravity assist in December 2026 before continuing its journey to Jupiter.
- Europa Clipper is on a mission to explore Jupiter's moon Europa for signs of life.
- The spacecraft has successfully deployed key scientific instruments during its journey.
- It will perform a gravity assist maneuver at Mars in March 2025.
- The mission includes 49 flybys of Europa starting in 2031.
- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the mission in collaboration with multiple NASA centers.
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9 comments> At Mars, scientists plan to turn on the spacecraft’s thermal imager to capture multicolored images of Mars as a test operation.
The positive thing about space being so large is that the further we go, the more of the neighbourhood we visit to take pictures of (as we need their gravitational assistance in our travels)
List of Solar System Probes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Solar_System_probes
Exploration of the Solar System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_and_exploration_of_t...
The Russian space program, despite having many firsts and many successes, had a huge number of failures early on with interplanetary probes and fell off almost completely by the mid-70's. Meanwhile Europe and Japan, both often viewed as lackluster space powers due to their lack of manned space programs, have contributed massively to solar system exploration.
Please, just call it a "light-minute", and remind ppl that the moon is one and a quarter light-seconds away.
Note, though, that this is only about engineering. “The science comes later.” The probe is still months from Mars on its way to Jupiter. Wait for 2030.
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