{"id":45835,"date":"2023-10-11T18:12:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T10:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/a-year-from-launch-the-europa-clipper-spacecraft-nears-finish-line\/"},"modified":"2023-10-11T18:12:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T10:12:57","slug":"a-year-from-launch-the-europa-clipper-spacecraft-nears-finish-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/a-year-from-launch-the-europa-clipper-spacecraft-nears-finish-line\/","title":{"rendered":"A year from launch, the Europa Clipper spacecraft nears finish line"},"content":{"rendered":"

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.\u2014The launch window for one of the most expensive robotic space missions in NASA\u2019s history opens one year from Tuesday. Coming in at $5 billion, Europa Clipper will try to help scientists answer a bold question commensurate with its eye-popping cost: Are there places below the surface of Jupiter\u2019s icy moon, Europa, that could support life?<\/p>\n

Europa is slightly smaller than Earth\u2019s Moon and is significantly more interesting to scientists searching for life. The icy world harbors a vast global ocean of liquid water underneath a frozen crust. Clipper will sail past Europa nearly 50 times, coming as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) from its icy surface to interrogate the moon with a sophisticated suite of nine instruments.<\/p>\n

Jordan Evans, who leads the team developing Europa Clipper at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told Ars on Tuesday the mission is on track to depart for Jupiter during a 21-day planetary launch window opening on October 10, 2024.<\/p>\n

The engineers who map out intricate interplanetary trajectories have even determined exactly when Europa Clipper needs to launch. If it flies on the first day of the launch window, liftoff will occur at 11:51 am EDT, according to Evans. That could be slightly adjusted as navigators refine the mission\u2019s trajectory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a 6,000-kilogram [13,000-pound] spacecraft with 100-foot [30-meter] wingspan solar arrays, with sensitive radar instruments on them, where all instruments have to operate simultaneously,\u201d Evans said. \u201cSo it\u2019s a beast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans spoke with Ars on Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center, Europa Clipper\u2019s launch site, almost exactly one year, to the minute, before the mission\u2019s targeted liftoff time. Evans is at the site this week, familiarizing himself with SpaceX\u2019s operations as the company readies for the launch of a Falcon Heavy with NASA\u2019s Psyche asteroid mission.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cClipper is doing great,\u201d Evans said, while acknowledging the mission has gone through its share of struggles.<\/p>\n

Managers had to overcome staffing issues at JPL, which developed Europa Clipper in parallel with at least four other major missions. Then, a political battle was waged over which rocket would send Clipper into the Solar System. NASA officials finally ruled out launching Clipper on the Space Launch System after engineers discovered the spacecraft could be damaged by vibrations induced by the rocket\u2019s solid-fueled boosters.<\/p>\n

In 2021, NASA selected SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy for the job. The decision saved an estimated $2 billion, and some novel trajectory design allowed Europa Clipper to take a more direct route toward Jupiter than originally thought possible with a launch on a commercial rocket. That means Clipper will enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030.<\/p>\n

The pandemic also threw a wrench into the mission. Delivery dates slipped for some of Clipper\u2019s science instruments as they encountered technical snags. But Evans said Tuesday that technicians assembling Clipper at JPL recently installed the final components needed for the spacecraft to start a final round of tests before shipment from the California lab to the launch site in Florida next May.<\/p>\n

Those final additions included all but one of the mission\u2019s science instruments, a suite of cameras, spectrometers, and magnetometers to image Europa and measure the detailed composition of its icy shell. Clipper\u2019s electronics vault, an armored box to shield computers from the damaging radiation at Jupiter, was also recently installed on the main body of the spacecraft, along with a high-gain communications antenna to transmit data back to Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt launch minus one year, we have taken the flight vehicle through all of its paces,\u201d Evans said. \u201cWe\u2019ve simulated launch, we\u2019ve simulated trajectory correction maneuvers, Jupiter orbit insertion, and flybys of Europa with all the instruments operating on the flight hardware and software. The system performed great.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Testing on tap<\/h2>\n

Later this month, Clipper\u2019s ground team at JPL will move the spacecraft into a test chamber to blast it with sound, mimicking the acoustic environment it will have to withstand during launch. They will also put Clipper through vibration and shock testing to see how the craft responds to the shaking of a rocket flight.<\/p>\n

Then comes an electromagnetic compatibility test, a milestone to ensure all of the electronics aboard Clipper can operate together as designed. Around the end of the year, engineers will transfer the spacecraft into a thermal vacuum chamber to subject it to the extreme hot and cold temperature swings it will see in space.<\/p>\n

Some of the tests still to come for Clipper will be simulations to check the spacecraft\u2019s response to problems. Can the spacecraft detect, diagnose, and protect itself against the glitches that could crop up during its mission?<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An artist\u2019s illustration of the Europa Clipper spacecraft during a flyby close to Jupiter\u2019s icy moon.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cFrom here on out, it\u2019s all system-level testing to ensure that any flaws that got into that vehicle\u2014because it is the work of human hands\u2014that we can find them and correct them, if necessary, before we get to launch one year from today,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n

After transporting the spacecraft across the country to Florida, Clipper\u2019s engineers will install the spacecraft\u2019s European-built solar arrays. Antennas for the mission\u2019s radar instrument will be mounted on the deployable solar panels. This radar package will measure the thickness of Europa\u2019s global ice sheet and study the internal structure of the icy crust, perhaps finding pockets of liquid water that connect the surface with the ocean below.<\/p>\n

The radar is one of the instruments that sets Clipper apart from NASA\u2019s Galileo spacecraft, which gathered much of the information we know about Europa during its mission at Jupiter more than 20 years ago. Mission managers decided to install the solar panels and radar antennas at the launch site, rather than at JPL, as a hedge against delays in delivering those elements.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are always schedule risks,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThe team knows we\u2019ve got a lot still ahead of us, but we definitely have ample schedule margin (for launch next October).\u201d<\/p>\n

Clipper, then what?<\/h2>\n

NASA\u2019s budget, like that of much of the federal government, is facing headwinds after the Biden administration and lawmakers agreed in June on spending caps on discretionary spending. Draft spending plans for fiscal year 2024 released by House and Senate committees earlier this year suggest Congress will primarily target NASA\u2019s science division for funding cuts while preserving money for the Artemis human exploration program to return astronauts to the Moon.<\/p>\n

Planetary exploration has the largest budget among the disciplines in NASA\u2019s science division, about 50 percent more than Earth science and double the agency\u2019s astrophysics budget in fiscal year 2023. And planetary science missions aren\u2019t cheap. Even a mission like the Psyche asteroid explorer, which is part of NASA\u2019s cost-capped, lower-budget \u201cDiscovery\u201d program, costs about $1.2 billion.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s next big flagship-class planetary science priority after Europa Clipper is the Mars Sample Return mission, and it\u2019s in trouble, according to the results of an independent review released last month. NASA had been planning to launch the critical elements of its Mars Sample Return mission as soon as 2028, with a total budget for the program of $4.4 billion.<\/p>\n

The review panel found that\u2019s just not realistic. The very earliest the mission could launch from Earth is 2030, and this opportunity would only be possible with a total budget of $8 billion to $11 billion.<\/p>\n

NASA is taking the next few months to digest the review panel\u2019s recommendations. Going in, NASA\u2019s plan for Mars Sample Return was to retrieve tubes of rock specimens collected by the Perseverance rover, currently on Mars, and then launch them into space with a small rocket. A return spacecraft provided by the European Space Agency would pick up the samples and bring them back to Earth.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cThey put some very actionable things in there, and some really great suggestions, looking at maybe other ways to implement the mission, and making sure that architecture is absolutely the right one to do,\u201d said Nicky Fox, the associate administrator for NASA\u2019s science division. \u201cAre there ways that we can just change the mission design so that the annual cost comes down?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very committed to bringing samples back from Mars,\u201d Fox said in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019re very, very committed to doing it. We\u2019re just going to take the next few months to make sure that we really are doing it in the best way.\u201d<\/p>\n

With billions of dollars of expenditures for Mars Sample Return on the horizon and a tight budget environment across the federal government, NASA is taking a pause on approving new planetary science missions for development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely has an impact to us,\u201d said Lori Glaze, director of NASA\u2019s planetary science division. \u201cOne of the few knobs that we have at NASA, that we can turn to adjust to those tightening budgets, is to delay some of those new opportunities. It\u2019s unfortunate. It\u2019s not what we want to do. But we also don\u2019t want to start up new projects when we can\u2019t commit to the full funding that\u2019s going to be necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, NASA announced it would delay the next opportunity for a medium-class \u201cNew Frontiers\u201d planetary science mission from this year until no earlier than 2026 because of budget issues.<\/p>\n

The focus now for NASA\u2019s planetary science division is executing on the missions already in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have four missions in our portfolio that have already passed what we call their confirmation review, which is the point where NASA makes a commitment to the US government on cost and schedule,\u201d Glaze said.<\/p>\n

Those four missions are Psyche, set for launch this week; Europa Clipper, launching next year; a lunar rover called VIPER, also set for launch next year, that will search for water near the Moon\u2019s south pole; and the Near Earth Object Surveyor, a telescope scheduled to launch no later than 2028 to find asteroids that might threaten Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.\u2014The launch window for one of the most expensive robotic space missions in NASA\u2019s history opens one year from Tuesday. Coming in at $5 billion, Europa Clipper will try to help scientists answer a bold question commensurate with its eye-popping cost: Are there places below the surface of Jupiter\u2019s icy moon, Europa, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45837,"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":[1659,1282,1606,190,1563],"class_list":["post-45835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-europa","tag-europa-clipper","tag-jupiter","tag-nasa","tag-solar-system"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45835"}],"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=45835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}