NASA experiment
NASA has begun building the SUV-sized Clipper spacecraft, which will investigate Jupiter’s icy ocean moon, with its launch in October 2024.
According to the British newspaper, “Daily Mail”, the Clipper mission aims to find out whether Europa, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter, hosts conditions suitable for life using a sophisticated set of scientific instruments.
Europa is an icy moon with a hidden ocean under the surface of 1,940 miles (3,100 km) in diameter, regarding 90% of the diameter of Earth’s moon.
Europa is also one of the few locations in the Solar System that contains liquid water, along with Earth and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, making it an important NASA target.
“Nearly every detail of the spacecraft will be handcrafted,” NASA said in a statement, adding, “When fully assembled, the spacecraft will be large with solar arrays long enough to span a basketball court, all the better to help power the spacecraft during its journey to the Moon. Icy “Europe” for Jupiter”.
The spacecraft’s main body is a giant 10-foot thruster, designed and built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.