During its mission, Europa Clipper will take high-resolution images and search for lakes beneath the surface of the ice. This mission will launch in October 2024.
Discovery of life on Jupiter’s icy moon (Photo Credits: Twitter)
Space is no longer limited to just going to the Moon or Mars, but in the search for life, scientists are now turning to other planets as well, which can open the doors of perhaps the greatest discovery in human history. NASA has chosen Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch a probe into Jupiter’s moon Europa, where an ocean of liquid exists that may indicate life. The US space agency NASA said in a statement that the contract price for the Europa Clipper mission is $178 million. This mission will be launched in 2024 with the help of Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Our Europa Clipper will launch aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket on October 2024, carrying a suite of scientific instruments that will investigate whether life on Jupiter’s icy moon, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a tweet. whether there are suitable conditions or not. Jupiter’s moon Europa is about 390 million miles (630 million kilometers) from Earth and the journey is expected to take more than five years.
The main objective of the mission is to explore the lakes.
NASA said in a statement that Europa Clipper will conduct a detailed probe of Jupiter’s moon and use a “sophisticated suite of science instruments” to determine whether the planet has conditions conducive to life. Europa Clipper’s payload will also carry cameras and spectrometers that will capture high-resolution photos of the surface and atmosphere. It will also have a radar which will examine the ice layer from above to find the liquid water below.
Launching October 2024! Our @EuropaClipper will ride on a Falcon Heavy rocket carrying a sophisticated suite of science instruments to investigate whether Jupiter’s icy moon has conditions suitable for life: https://t.co/D5QYu51YfX pic.twitter.com/eJGu2TtHLK
— Thomas Zurbuchen (@Dr_ThomasZ) July 23, 2021
The mission’s main objectives are to capture high-resolution images of Europa, determine its composition, look for signs of geological activity, measure the thickness of the Moon’s icy surface, search for lakes beneath the surface, and explore Europa, the statement said. To determine the depth and salinity of the ocean.
Falcon Heavy made its first flight in 2018
Earlier, the mission was to take off on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is yet to launch and is facing delays and cost-related challenges. The Falcon Heavy has been deployed for both commercial and government missions since its first flight in 2018. First it took Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster into space. It has been carrying both cargo and crew to the International Space Station in recent years.
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