{"id":16487,"date":"2015-03-10T22:51:28","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T14:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/europa-clipper-concept-team-aims-for-launch-in-2022\/"},"modified":"2015-03-10T22:51:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T14:51:28","slug":"europa-clipper-concept-team-aims-for-launch-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/europa-clipper-concept-team-aims-for-launch-in-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Europa Clipper concept team aims for launch in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the Europa Clipper spacecraft. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/JHUAPL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a commitment from the Obama administration finally in hand after more than a decade of studies and concept papers, NASA expects to give the green light this year for development of a robotic probe to Jupiter\u2019s icy moon Europa that could launch as soon as 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous opportunity for us to be able to look at a potentially habitable world around a giant planet,\u201d said Jim Green, director of NASA\u2019s planetary science division.<\/p>\n

One concept led by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is the favorite to win NASA\u2019s backing.<\/p>\n

The Europa Clipper mission came out of a multi-year study to slash the cost of a mission to study the enigmatic moon, eventually settling on a projected price tag near $2 billion \u2014 excluding launch costs \u2014 less than half the estimated cost of a Europa probe published in a decadal survey report by the National Research Council in 2011.<\/p>\n

Scientists and engineers found savings in switching the probe from a nuclear-powered design to a solar power source and crafting a mission to fly by Europa dozens of times instead of entering orbit around the icy moon.<\/p>\n

Officials say the Europa Clipper concept may need some tweaks, but it gives NASA a good starting point for development expected to start after it wins programmatic approval in a milestone expected as soon as mid-2015.<\/p>\n

The milestone, known as Key Decision Point A (KDP-A) in NASA\u2019s parlance, will mark the start of full-scale development of the Europa probe. Decisions on scientific instrumentation, mission design, a launch vehicle and launch date, and international partnerships will follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuropa Clipper has had quite an important evolution,\u201d Green said in a Feb. 19 meeting of NASA\u2019s Outer Planets Assessment Group. \u201cIt is a proof of concept that says we can do it, and it\u2019s not a $4 billion mission as we studied and discussed at the decadal, so it has made major progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barry Goldstein, who leads the Europa Clipper studies as pre-project manager at JPL, said the mission passed a major hurdle in September, when reviewers deemed the concept mature enough for consideration in NASA\u2019s mission portfolio.<\/p>\n

Congress has backed the Europa mission with $255 million over the last three years, an order of magnitude more than the White House requested over the same period.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the fact that we have this funding, we\u2019re proceeding on this path and not slowing down,\u201d Goldstein told the OPAG meeting Feb. 19.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration is asking Congress for $30 million \u2014 enough to formally turn on development of a Europa mission \u2014 in fiscal year 2016, which begins Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress has been quite generous,\u201d Green said, adding the funding approved by lawmakers the last three years gives the Europa project a \u201creally rich start\u201d compared to the beginnings of most of NASA\u2019s other robotic science missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is highly unsuual that the mission concepts that enter (formulation and development) are as mature as we have in looking at Europa,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n

NASA plans to take the first step at selecting instruments to fly on the Europa mission in April, when the space agency will award funding to the top-rated science teams to refine their proposals and reduce the risks of developing the sensors.<\/p>\n

Final instrument decisions are expected in 2016, giving NASA time to evaluate what set of sensors should be flown to Europa in hopes of probing the ocean thought to lie below the moon\u2019s global ice sheet. The mission could also sample watery plumes that may exist over Europa\u2019s south pole, where a flyby probe could dash through material lofted from below the surface.<\/p>\n

Scientists announced in 2013 that the Hubble Space Telescope detected evidence for the plumes, thrusting a mission to Europa back on the science community\u2019s agenda after being overshadowed by NASA\u2019s push toward Mars.<\/p>\n

Follow-up observations by Hubble are planned to try and confirm the plume detection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t overemphasize the importance of the Hubble observations (of the plumes) that allowed us to renew the conversation about Europa being an active world,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter\u2019s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view, made from images taken by NASA\u2019s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SETI Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Green said the Europa Clipper study has \u201cpopped to the top\u201d of the Europa mission concepts considered by NASA, the design could require some fine-tuning to accommodate all the objectives the agency wants to accomplish.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps additional instruments need to be brought on to investigate the plume,\u201d Green said, adding that NASA is examining ideas to deploy CubeSats or drop a lander or impactor to Europe\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

Green said NASA has asked the European Space Agency if it is interested in contributing to the Europa mission.<\/p>\n

ESA plans to launch its own probe to Jupiter in 2022 to conduct multiple flybys of the giant planet\u2019s moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa before eventually looping into orbit around Ganymede.<\/p>\n

While ESA\u2019s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, mission will fly by Europa twice, NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper concept could zip past it 45 times.<\/p>\n

ESA participated in NASA\u2019s last flagship-class mission to the outer solar system. The European-built Huygens lander accompanied the Cassini spacecraft to Saturn, then parachuted to a landing on the moon Titan in 2005.<\/p>\n

NASA and ESA planned to partner on a joint mission to the Jupiter comprising two spacecraft, one to orbit Europa and another to circle Ganymede. But budget limitations kept the U.S. space agency from going forward with its part of the mission, which had a projected cost of nearly $5 billion.<\/p>\n

ESA moved forward with the European-led JUICE mission, and NASA went back to the drawing board before eventually coming up with the Europa Clipper proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cESA\u2019s really been our best partner,\u201d Green said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been fabulous working with us. We\u2019ve had ups and downs in the past, but all seems to be forgiven and we\u2019re right back together. I want to give them an opportunity to be part of this mission. We shouldn\u2019t let that go, and we have to let that evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a number of concepts that we\u2019ve asked them to look at, and they\u2019ve started to look at them,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n

NASA is officially targeting launch of the Europa probe in the mid-2020s, but Goldstein said the Europa Clipper concept is far enough along to potentially be ready for flight by June 2022, when the positions of Earth and Jupiter make the journey possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a mission that will launch some time in the early-to-mid-2020s,\u201d Goldstein said. \u201cOur best case scenario is launching in an opportunity that opens up in May to June of 2022, and we\u2019re holding that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of CubeSats at Jupiter and Europa. NASA awarded funding to 10 university teams last year to study CubeSat proposals that could be carried to Europa. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Goldstein said engineers have studied launching Europa Clipper on NASA\u2019s Space Launch System \u2014 a behemoth rocket designed to launch astronauts into deep space \u2014 or the most powerful version of United Launch Alliance\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket with five strap-on solid rocket boosters.<\/p>\n

The mission concept review board in September concluded the SLS launch option was \u201cfar superior\u201d to other alternatives because it would allow the probe to fly directly to Jupiter in less than two years. Launching on a smaller rocket would require gravity assist flybys of Venus and Earth, adding three-and-a-half years to the voyage.<\/p>\n

But lifting off aboard the SLS would be more costly \u2014 the Europa Clipper study assumed $500 million \u2014 and NASA would have to insert the Europa launch into the heavy-lift rocket\u2019s manifest between launches with crews.<\/p>\n

The Europa Clipper team opted to go with a solar-powered design instead of using a plutonium power generator, a decision Goldstein said saves money and still leaves plenty of margin for growth if the spacecraft needs more electricity or gets bigger.<\/p>\n

Goldstein said the Europa team is following the progress of NASA\u2019s Juno mission, which is fitted with solar panels and on the way to Jupiter, with arrival in orbit set for July 2016. Juno will study Jupiter\u2019s magnetic field and internal structure, and the probe will set a record for the most distant mission to rely on solar energy.<\/p>\n

Solar cells at Jupiter\u2019s distance from the sun produce a fraction of the electricity as they do at Earth.<\/p>\n

Officials are still evaluating whether it will be better to use solar cells flown on Juno or switch to a more high-tech design to give out more power.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can either cash that in with less area for the (solar) arrays or more power for the system, to be determined at this point,\u201d Goldstein said. \u201cBut we\u2019re not counting on that new technology. We wanted existence proof to show that we had what we needed to make the jump away from (nuclear power).\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials hope to decide between the old or new solar cell technology by the middle of 2015, then NASA could begin buying test and flight units as part of the mission\u2019s long-lead purchases, according to Goldstein.<\/p>\n

Other upcoming milestones include the build-up of a testbed to test the spacecraft\u2019s avionics, and tests of components for the mission\u2019s thermal control system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have significant engineering risks on the baseline engineering subsystems,\u201d Goldstein said.<\/p>\n

But Europa Clipper\u2019s instrument package, expected to include spectrometers, cameras, an ice-penetrating radar and potential daughter probes, could have a tough time handling the harsh radiation environment at Jupiter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the instruments are selected, they are subjected to a much more harsh environment than the rest of the engineering system,\u201d Goldstein said. \u201cWhere I think our biggest challenges are going to be is in the sensors and the other elements that are not cocooned inside the vault that we\u2019ve created in this architecture. I\u2019m really worried about the challenges the instruments are going to have in development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist\u2019s concept of the Europa Clipper spacecraft. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/JHUAPL With a commitment from the Obama administration finally in hand after more than a decade of studies and concept papers, NASA expects to give the green light this year for development of a robotic probe to Jupiter\u2019s icy moon Europa that could launch as soon as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1659,1282,1606],"class_list":["post-16487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-europa","tag-europa-clipper","tag-jupiter"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}