2024-04-12 08:06:34
The American Clipper probe, kept in a sterile room in California, was unveiled Thursday by NASA. Its mission: the study of Europa – one of Jupiter’s dozens of moons – which might harbor forms of life.
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Are aliens secretly splashing around beneath the surface of an icy Jupiter moon? On Thursday April 11, NASA unveiled an interplanetary probe intended to find out what is going on.
The Europa Clipper probe, worth five billion dollars (around 4.7 billion euros), is due to depart in October aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket bound for Europe, one of dozens moons of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.
The device will travel for more than five years and will notably pass through Mars, before – if all goes as planned – entering orbit around Jupiter and Europa in 2031.
The device is currently kept in a sterile room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, accessible only to personnel covered from head to toe. All precautions are taken so that the probe does not bring any Earth microbes to Europa.
Detailed inspection of Europe
Once its mission begins, Clipper will begin a detailed inspection of this satellite of Jupiter, of a size comparable to the Moon, which scientists believe is covered in frozen water.
“We have instruments like cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer and radar that can … penetrate the ice, bounce off the liquid water and come back to the surface to tell us how thick the ice is and where the liquid water is located,” continues Bob Pappalardo.
Those responsible for the mission are not hoping to find little green men splashing around: in fact, they are not necessarily looking for signs of life, only conditions favorable to it.
Scientists know that even in extreme climates on Earth, under the ice cap in environments without light, small forms of life can exist.
“If the moons around the planets far from the stars might host life, then the number of possibilities in the solar system, in the universe, for life to be present, increases drastically, I think,” said Jordan Evans, project leader. for the Europa Clipper mission.
Powerful radiation field
The study of Europa will not be easy, however: a powerful field of radiation encompasses Jupiter’s natural satellite and might damage the instruments of Clipper, which will receive the equivalent of 100,000 chest x-rays at each loop around its objective. .
Due to the distance, the probe data will take 45 minutes to arrive at the control station. And despite its enormous solar panels that will deploy once in space, it will be difficult to keep Clipper in service, according to Jordan Evans.
“Near Earth, they might power 20 houses continuously. And (near) Jupiter, only a few light bulbs and small appliances,” due to the planet’s distance from the Sun, explains he.
The mission, planning for which began in the late 1990s, is scheduled to end around 2034, when Clipper will have reached the end of its useful life.
The probe’s final step will be to crash into a moon of Jupiter, says Tim Larson, deputy project leader.
“When we are done with the science mission, the way to end it is to crash into one of the other (celestial) bodies in the Jovian system available to the device,” he concludes. “For the moment”, NASA plans to rush the probe once morest Ganymede, the largest natural satellite of Jupiter, he specifies.
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