2024-03-10 23:46:02
On this side of a commemorative plaque mounted on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is the handwriting of American Poet Laureate Ada Lemon “In Praise of Mystery: A Song for Europa.” It will be affixed with a silicon chip stenciled with names submitted by the public. Credit: NASA/JPL -Caltech
When it launches in October, the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a richly layered shipment that includes more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public.
Following in NASA’s famous tradition of sending inspiring messages to space, the agency has special plans for Europa Clipper, which later this year will be launched towards Jupiter’s moon Europa. The moon shows strong evidence of an ocean beneath its icy crust, with more than twice the amount of water of all the oceans of Earth Together A triangular metal panel on the spacecraft will honor this connection to Earth in several ways.
At the heart of the artifact is a handwritten engraving by USA laureate Ada Lemon of “In Praise of Mystery: A Song for Europe,” along with a silicon chip stenciled with more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public. The microchip will be the centerpiece of an illustration of A bottle inside the Jovian system – a reference to NASA’s “message in a bottle” campaign, which invited the public to send their names with the spacecraft.
‘Gold record’ for Europe
Made of metal tantalum and measuring approximately 7 by 11 inches (18 by 28 cm), the plate features graphic elements on both sides. The outward-facing panel features art emphasizing the Earth’s connection to Europe. Linguists have collected recordings of the word “water ” spoken in 103 languages, from language families around the world. The audio files were converted to waveforms (visual representations of sound waves) and etched into a plate. The waveforms radiate from a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for “water”.
The art on this side of the plate, which will seal a vault opening on NASA’s Europa Clipper, shows waveforms that are visual representations of the sound waves produced by the word “water” in 103 languages. In the center is a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign For “water.” Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
To hear audio of the languages spoken and see the sign, go to: go.nasa.gov/MakeWaves.
In the spirit of Voyager’s golden peak, carrying sounds and images to convey the richness and diversity of life on Earth, the layered message on Europa Clipper aims to ignite the imagination and offer a unifying vision.
“The content and design of the Europa Clipper Vaulting Dish are swimming with meaning,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The message of connection through water, essential to all forms of life as we know it, perfectly illustrates Earth’s connection to this mysterious ocean world we are setting out to explore.”
You reached out to the cosmos
In 2030, after a journey of 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion km), Europa Clipper will begin orbiting Jupiter, making 49 close flybys of Europa. To determine whether conditions exist that could support life, the spacecraft’s suite of powerful scientific instruments will collect data on the ocean. The subsurface of the moon, the ice crust, the thin atmosphere and the space environment. The electronics of those devices are housed in a massive metal vault designed to protect them from Jupiter’s punishing radiation. The commemorative plaque is a sealed opening in the vault.
Learn more about how the Europa Caliper vault plate engravings were designed and the inspiration for the plate’s multi-layered message. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Since the search for habitable conditions is central to the mission, the Drake equation is also engraved on the plate – on the side facing inward. Astronomer Frank Drake developed the mathematical formulation in 1961 to estimate the possibility of finding advanced civilizations beyond Earth. The equation has inspired and guided research in astrobiology and related fields ever since.
Additionally, artwork on the inward-facing side of the plate will include a reference to the radio frequencies considered reasonable for interstellar communication, symbolizing how humanity uses this radio band to listen for messages from the cosmos. These particular frequencies correspond to the radio waves emitted in space by the water components and are known by astronomers as the “water hole”. On the plate they are depicted as radio emission lines.
Finally, the plaque features a portrait of one of the founders of planetary science, Ron Greeley, whose early efforts to develop a Europa mission two decades ago laid the groundwork for Europa Clipper.
“We put as much thought and inspiration into the design of these panels as we did into this mission itself,” says project scientist Robert Pappalardo of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It’s been a decades-long journey, and we can’t wait to see what Europa Clipper shows us in the world This water.”
After Europa Clipper’s assembly is completed at JPL, the spacecraft will be sent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch in October.
More on the mission
Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine if there are places beneath Jupiter’s icy moon Europa that could support life. The mission’s three primary science goals are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy mantle and its surface interactions with the ocean beneath it, study its composition, and characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed investigation of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
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