On October 14, 2024, the Europa Clipper Mission of the NASA started on a Falcon -heavy rocket from the start complex 39a in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The next few years will travel 2.9 billion km (1.8 billion Mi) to reach Jupiters Moon Europe. It arrives in April 2030. As soon as it arrives in the system, the probe will be produced by an orbit and 49 Close Flybys carried out this “ocean world” and look for chemical elements that could indicate the presence of life (biosignatures) inside the moon. The Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (juice) of the ESA -Jupiter (juice) will be accompanied by July 2031, which carries out a similar search in Callisto and Ganyymede.
As usual, the mission team has checked and calibrated the clipper instruments since the start to ensure that everything is fine. The most recent test included the Stern reference units (or star trackers) of the probe, which caught and broadcast the first spatial pictures of the Europa Clipper. These two imaging cameras are looking for stars with which Mission Controller help to orient the spaceship. This is crucial if you indicate the telecommunications antennas of the probe to Earth so that you can send and receive critical mission data.
The image (see below) consists of three shots that show stars 150 to 300 light years away. The Starfield includes the four brightest stars of the constellation Corvus (Gienah, Algorab, Kraz and Alchiba), the Latin word for crow – a bird in Greek mythology associated with Apollo. The Sternenfeld represents about 0.1% of the sky around the spaceship, but this is sufficient for other spaceships to determine its orientation. A 3D model of the Europa Clipper of NASA can be viewed on the solar system in the agency's interactive eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q88fsdgmbys
In contrast to what you could expect, orientation is a separate process of navigation and for telecommunications and science companies of crucial importance. While navigation is about ensuring that the mission is in the right direction (by first determining where it is in space), the alignment includes the use of star carriers to determine where the science instruments are shown. This includes the Europa Imaging System (Ice), which helps scientists to map the moon surface and its many mysterious features – the fractures, burrs and valleys caused by the reservations of events.
The checkout phase has been taking place in October since Europe Clipper, and these photos show that the latest instrument test was successful. Joanie Noonan from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the instructions, navigation and control operations of the mission. “The Star Trackers are technical hardware and always record pictures that are processed on board,” she said in a press release from NASA. “We usually have no photos from the trackers, but we did it in this case because it is a really good way to ensure that the hardware – including the cameras and their lenses – made it through the start.”
When the European Clipper reaches its goal, he will perform 49 Flybys of the Moon and collect information with its nine scientific instruments. In addition to the ice cream, the probe is based on the European Thermal Malemization Bilding System (e-tthemis) in order to recognize warmer regions that could be liquid water near the surface or flag activity. There will also be two spectrometers – measuring light in the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) wavelengths – to determine the composition of the surface and atmospheric gases of Europe and the distribution of iron, salts, organic pieces and the warmest hotspots to measure on Europe.
Other instruments are magnetometers that measure the induced magnetic field of Europe, confirm the existence of its inner ocean and determine its depth. There are also gravity and radar instruments that measure the gravitational field and the probe of the moon under the icy surface, a dust spectrometer and a neutral gas mass spectrometer to identify the materials that identify the European statements or penetrates in the room, and a spectrometer To investigate the chemistry of the moon of the moon atmosphere and feathers and its underground ocean.
Could flat lakes be locked away in Europe's crust? Europe clipper will find out. Credit: NASA
This advanced suite of instruments will help the Europa Clipper mission to achieve its three most important science goals: to determine the thickness of the icy shell of the moon, to examine its composition and to characterize its geology. In doing so, (or deny) that Europe and its internal ocean have the necessary ingredients and conditions to support life. The detailed exploration of the mission will inform scientists about the conditions of other “oceans” in the solar system (and beyond) and their potential for habitability.
If the mission is successful and the Europa Clipper potential biosignatures, NASA can pursue the proposed Europa -Lander. When this mission is realized, the icy surface in Europe is determined and its composition and spring activity is directly examined, the results of which could definitely demonstrate the existence of extraterrestrial life. The Europa Clipper is currently 85 million km from Earth and drives at a speed of 27 km per second (17 MPS). The craft quickly approaches Mars, and on March 1st the engineers will control the probe to use gravity that helps with the red planet.
Further reading: NASA
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