NASA launched the Europa Clipper spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral on Monday, the 14th of October, to investigate whether Jupiter’s moon Europa has conditions suitable for life, focusing on a large underwater ocean thought to lie beneath its thick outer ice mantle, reports Reuters.
The launch of the solar-powered robotic probe, which is expected to reach Jupiter by 2030, covering some 2.9 billion km in five and a half years, was delayed because of Hurricane Milton.
It is the largest spacecraft NASA has built for a planetary mission – about 30.5m long and 17.6m wide with fully deployed antennas and solar panels – bigger than a basketball court – and weighs about 6 000kg.
Liftoff of Europa Clipper!
The #EuropaClipper spacecraft lifted off at 12:06pm ET Oct. 14 from Launch Pad 39A aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The mission will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our… pic.twitter.com/rzqbmqvyBh
— NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) October 14, 2024
Europa, one of the largest of Jupiter’s 95 moons, is much smaller than Earth – about a quarter of its size. Yet beneath its surface lies a huge saltwater ocean, which probably contains twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined.
With a diameter of about 3 100km – about 90% of the diameter of our Moon – scientists see Europa as a potential place with the right conditions to support life beyond Earth. Its icy mantle is thought to be 15-25km thick and to lie above an ocean 60-150m deep.
NASA officials have said that the mission could also have a major impact on astrobiology and humanity’s understanding of the Universe.
NASA’s Europa Clipper will make 49 close flybys of Europa from 2031 to study its inner ocean, ice sheet and possible water vapour plumes.
Operating in the intense radiation of Jupiter, which is surrounded by a magnetic field about 20 000 times stronger than on Earth, the spacecraft’s sensitive electronics are protected by a titanium and aluminium cover.
NASA’s Europa Clipper, carrying more than 6 060kg of fuel, will not fly straight to reach Jupiter, but will initially fly by Mars and Earth and use the gravity of Mars and Earth to reach Jupiter. Its solar panels, which were folded for launch, will power the spacecraft and its nine scientific instruments during the mission.