The main body of the Europa Clipper has arrived at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The next two years will see the final assembly and testing before launch in October 2024. Once in space, the Clipper will be the largest NASA spacecraft ever sent on a planetary mission, spanning 22m.
It will have one main mission: to determine if Jupiter’s moon Europa has conditions suitable to support alien life.
The main body is an aluminium cylinder 3m long and 1.5m wide, fitted with electronics, radios, thermal loop tubing, cables and the propulsion system. It will also be equipped with solar arrays and other equipment that will unfold after launch.
The Clipper will cruise towards the Jovian system for five and a half years, before executing nearly 50 flybys of Europa.
Due to tell-tale magnetic interactions with Jupiter’s own field, and the lack of craters on its surface, Europa is suspected of possessing an ocean beneath its icy crust. Such an ocean would contain more liquid water than is found in all the oceans of Earth. Gravitational stress on Europa is also believed to keep the moon warm, and scientists suspect the moon possesses the chemistry required for life.
“If there is life in Europa, it almost certainly was completely independent from the origin of life on Earth… that would mean the origin of life must be pretty easy throughout the galaxy and beyond,” said project scientist Robert Pappalardo.
