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NASA is embarking on one of the most ambitious missions yet to come. The Europa Clipper has crossed a major bureaucratic hurdle, allowing the agency to begin final design and construction of the spacecraft that will explore Jupiter's icy moon. The mission will begin to take shape over the next few years before being launched on Something. Originally, NASA intended to use the Space Launch System (SLS), but it may need to rethink this in the light of recent delays.
Europa has been the subject of much research since the Voyager probes took pictures of the moon during their overflights in the late 1970s. The surface is covered with dark streaks called lineae, which may indicate a liquid ocean under the area. Assuming there is liquid water under the icy crust, Europa could have several times more water than all the oceans of the Earth. The warming of the tides due to the gravity of Jupiter could keep this ocean liquid and allow life to develop.
NASA is currently using the Juno probe in the Jovian system, but it was not designed to study moons. The Europa Clipper would be the first mission to focus on a moon other than Earth in orbit. Europa Clipper will not land on the surface, but will make more than 40 overflights of the moon, which it will analyze with a suite of nine instruments to analyze the magnetic field, temperature and more of the planet. Europa occasionally rejects plumes of water vapor in the space and Europa Clipper could analyze the chemical composition of the water if it manages to cross it.
All NASA missions must go through a labyrinthine approval process that begins with the preliminary design. It is only after successfully passing an independent review that a project reaches the final design and construction. This is where Europa Clipper is. NASA gave the green light to the team to start designing and building the spaceship that will fly into space. Another review phase takes place before the mission can continue to assemble, test and launch. It's in a few years.
NASA's announcement of the mission's new status does not say how it will launch the spacecraft. According to the preliminary draft, Europa Clipper had to fly on the SLS, which NASA had hoped to have done several years ago. As the development of SLS continues, it is not certain that the rocket will be ready in time for launch windows 2023 or 2025. There has been talk of using a smaller commercial rocket, but it would take more long enough to send the probe to Europa aboard one of these vehicles.
Even if it takes a little more time to arrive in Europe, extraterrestrials (if they exist) will still be waiting for us. We look forward to receiving more updates on Europa Clipper.
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