NASA’s Europa Clipper has ventured on its mission to explore Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, which may host a vast subsurface ocean. The spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, marking the origin of its long journey to investigate whether Europa could support life.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission. It’s also the first mission to conduct research on an ocean world beyond our planet Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles, making use of gravity from Mars and Earth to reach Jupiter by 2030. Once it reaches, 49 flybys of Europa will be made to assemble data on the moon’s icy surface and potential livability.
The mission’s primary goal is to find out if Europa’s ocean, which is assumed to exist beneath its ice, could support life. The shocking fact derived from the data from past missions, including NASA’s Galileo, is that this ocean holds more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. The spacecraft will also look for signs of organic compounds and energy sources; key ingredients required for life to exist.
Europa Clipper will use advanced scientific instruments and techniques to make detailed observations of Europa’s surface and atmosphere. By flying close to the moon, the spacecraft will capture data on its ice crust, subsurface ocean, and possible signs of hydrothermal activity, which could offer clues about its livability.
If Europa is found to be livable, it would greatly enhance our understanding of the probability of life somewhere else in the solar system. The presence of water and organic materials could mean that other ocean worlds, both within and beyond planet Earth, could also accommodate life.
“We’re ecstatic to send Europa Clipper on its way to explore a potentially habitable ocean world, thanks to our colleagues and partners who’ve worked so hard to get us to this day”, said Laurie Leshin, director, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. Jordan Evans, project manager, at NASA JPL, said, “Europa Clipper will undoubtedly deliver mind-blowing science. While always bittersweet to send something we’ve laboured over for years off on its long journey, we know this remarkable team and spacecraft will expand our knowledge of our solar system and inspire future exploration.”
Looking ahead, the data that Europa Clipper will collect could motivate future missions focused on exploring Europa in more depth, and to study the icy surface more closely. Through this mission, we could also explore other ocean moons in the outer solar system.
The launch of Europa Clipper is a major step forward in NASA’s pursuit to explore distant parts of our solar system. As the spacecraft begins its journey, scientists eagerly foresee the groundbreaking discoveries it may propose about life beyond Earth.
Watch the launch of Europa clipper from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT.
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