NASA / Kim Shiflett
Technicians Work to Prepare Europa Clipper for Propellant Loading (News Release)
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission moves closer to launch as technicians worked on Wednesday, September 11, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to prepare the spacecraft for upcoming propellant loading at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The spacecraft will explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, which is considered one of the most promising habitable environments in the Solar System. The mission will research whether Europa’s subsurface ocean could hold the conditions necessary for life. Europa could have all the “ingredients” for life as we know it: water, organics and chemical energy.
Europa Clipper’s launch period opens on Thursday, October 10. It will lift off on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. The spacecraft will then embark on a journey of nearly six years and 1.8 billion miles before reaching Jupiter’s orbit in 2030.
The spacecraft is designed to study Europa’s icy shell, underlying ocean and potential plumes of water vapor using a gravity science experiment alongside a suite of nine instruments including cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer and ice-penetrating radar. The data that Europa Clipper collects could improve our understanding of the potential for life elsewhere in the Solar System.
Source: NASA.Gov
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NASA
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