07/26/2021 18:35
Clarín.com
Technology
Updated 07/26/2021 6:35 PM
NASA chose the company of American magnate Elon Musk, SpaceX, to explore the icy moon Europa of Jupiter through a mission that is scheduled to
take place in October 2024
.
The Europa Clipper mission will begin with the launch of the
Falcon Heavy
rocket
from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, for which SpaceX will receive
178 million dollars
.
Many expected the liftoff to be carried out by NASA with its SLS rocket, but its development is fraught with delays and mounting costs.
While the SLS is not yet operational, the Falcon Heavy has conducted commercial and government missions since its maiden flight in 2018
when it took Musk's Tesla Roadster into space
.
The Falcon Heavy has already carried out commercial and government missions since its maiden flight in 2018. Photo: DPA
This rocket requires great lift-off power.
Its propellant is capable of generating more than five million pounds of thrust (22 million Newtons) on takeoff,
which is equivalent to 18 747 aircraft
.
The Europa orbiter will make between 40 and 50 close passes over the moon "Europa"
to determine if it has suitable conditions for life
.
Its cargo will include cameras and spectrometers to produce high-resolution images
and maps of the surface and atmosphere
, as well as radar to pierce the ice sheet in search of liquid water.
Musk will receive funding of $ 178 million for the mission.
Photo: AFP
The mission takes up the studies carried out by
the Galileo space probe during the eight years
in which it orbited around the gaseous planet, which made it possible to determine the existence of an ocean under the surface of Europa.
Plans to send a probe to Europa were initially conceived with projects such as the Europa Orbiter and Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, in which a space probe would be placed orbiting Europa.
According to the data collected, it is known that Europa has an internal global ocean
twice the size of all those on Earth combined
.
In addition, it has the potential for suitable conditions for life.
Neighborhood life
However, getting to its core is not an easy task.
The freezing temperatures and the relentless impact on the surface
of Jupiter's radiation make it a difficult target to explore
.
The challenge for the mission's engineers and scientists
is to design a spacecraft that is rugged enough
so that it is not affected by radiation, yet sensitive enough to gather the science needed to investigate Europa's environment.
The Europa Clipper propulsion module in full swing.
Johns Hopkins APL / Ed Whitman
As this work progresses, project leaders continue to plan the science load of the mission.
The spacecraft's instruments will
measure the depth of the ice crust, the inner ocean, and how thick and salty it is.
Another of the cameras will allow capturing color images
of the surface geology in detail and will analyze potential columns.
Scientists are especially interested in what constitutes the surface of the moon.
Evidence suggests that the material exposed there has mixed through the icy crust and perhaps came from the ocean below it.
Illustration of Jupiter's moon Europa shows how the icy surface can glow on its night side.
NASA / JPL-CALTECH
Europa Clipper will also investigate
the moon's field of gravity
, which will tell scientists more about how the moon flexes when Jupiter pulls on it, and how that action could potentially warm the inner ocean.
But the more instruments a spacecraft carries, the more interaction they generate, which could affect how others work.
At the moment tests are being carried out so that they can all work at the same time without electromagnetic interference.
The entire suite of instruments will undergo extensive testing upon arrival at JPL later this year.
Early 2022 will mark the start of assembly, test and launch operations.
It has begun the countdown.
SL
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