There spaceship space Europe Clipper from the NASA is ready to leave for one of Jupiter’s moons, with the aim of searching for new ones extraterrestrial life forms. The interplanetary probe was unveiled in California and should leave by October towards the largest planet in the Solar System, for one of the satellites of the gas giant where the discovery of traces of carbon in the liquid oceans under the frozen crust gives rise to hope for a discovery that would revolutionize thinking about the path to space.
NASA unveils the Europa Clipper spacecraft
The interplanetary spacecraft that NASA wants to send to Europa is called Europa Clipper. A $5 billion probe that the government agency plans to send in orbit by October and which, in the coming years, could bring important information about Jupiter’s satellite back to Earth.
Is there life in space? This is the question that the probe currently located at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, housed in a “clean room”, will try to answer. Parked, in fact, in a sealed area accessible only to people wearing full head-to-toe coverage, Europa Clipper will in fact only be approached by workers to ensure that the spacecraft remains free of contaminants, to avoid transporting terrestrial microorganisms onto Europe.
It should be launched with a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and begin a journey of at least 5 years, with a close flyby also over Mars to increase speed. In 2031, it should be in orbit around Jupiter and Europa, where one will begin detailed study of the moon which scientists believe is covered in frozen water.
Why the mission to Europa is important
On its journey, however, Europa Clipper will not bring back to Earth the certainty that there is life on Jupiter’s moon, but rather the possibility. In fact, the objective of those responsible for the mission is to study the surface of Europa to try to understand if there could be conditions to sustain life in those conditions.
The mission, whose planning began in the late 1990s, is therefore expected to conclude around 2034, when Clipper will likely have reached the end of its useful life.
The probe’s final stop could be Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, where once the science mission is completed Clipper will crash into the ground in the Jovian system.
Where is Jupiter’s moon Europa
Europa is the fourth largest natural satellite of the planet Jupiter and the sixth in the entire solar system. Slightly smaller than our Moon, it is composed mainly of silicates with a crust made of frozen water.
It is located beyond 670 thousand kilometers from Jupitereven 780 million kilometers from the Sun and 628 million kilometers from Earth. A distance which, however, will be covered for the good of science, as that frozen water suggests the presence of oceans under the crust they might be home to extraterrestrial life.
A hypothesis that fascinates scientists who have already built projects around Jupiter’s satellite. And they fantasize with their minds, because until Clipper provides the desired information, everything is pure fantasy. But life, beyond Earth, is becoming more and more possible.
