NASA to launch $5.2 billion Jupiter moon mission

[New Sancai Compilation First Edition] The United States Space Agency (NASA) will launch its most ambitious mission to Jupiter to date on October 10. The Europa Clipper will depart from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as planned.

The exploration mission will ride on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to embark on a five-and-a-half-year journey to Europa (Europa), the fourth largest satellite of Jupiter and arguably the most scientifically important satellite. Europa has long been a desired mission for NASA because of its atmospheric conditions and massive liquid ocean that holds twice as much water as all Earth's oceans combined.

NASA scientists have found evidence of life-sustaining substances such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. These important components, located beneath the underground ocean, provide the right conditions for organic life.

The $5.2 billion spacecraft carries payloads including cameras and spectrometers to produce high-resolution images and compositional maps of Europa's surface and atmosphere. Ice-detecting radar will be used to search for groundwater, and thermal instruments will be used to detect the location of warmer ice and possible recent eruptions of water.

Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for planetary missions, measuring 16 feet tall and over 100 feet long when its solar panels are fully deployed.

The existence of water on Europa was first suspected in 1995 when the Galileo spacecraft discovered that Europa was emitting thin columns of water miles into space.

Europa Clipper plans to rendezvous with Jupiter in April 2030 and conduct 49 close flybys of Europa.

(Compiled by: Wang Jimin)

(Editor: Jiang Qiming)

(Source of the article: Compiled and published by New Sancai)