Preparing NASA’s Europa Clipper for its Journey to Jupiter’s Moon Europa

2024-04-03 23:00:46

NASA’s Europa Clipper is slated for launch to Jupiter’s moon Europa, with extensive pre-launch testing completed to ensure its readiness for the extreme conditions of space. The mission will use gravity aids to reach Jupiter by 2030, while also conducting close flights to Europa to explore its potential for support Alive.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A series of experiments prepared the spacecraft for its challenging trip to the Jupiter system, where it will explore the icy moon Europa and its subsurface ocean.

In less than six months, NASA is set to launch Europa Clipper on a 1.6-billion-mile (2.6 billion-kilometer) journey to Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa. From the wild vibrations of rocket travel to the intense heat and cold of space to Jupiter’s punishing radiation, it will be a journey of extremes.The spacecraft recently underwent a series of rigorous tests at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to ensure it was up to the challenge.

The battery of experiments, called environmental tests, simulates the environment the spacecraft will face, exposing it to shaking, cooling, lack of air, electromagnetic fields and more.

“These were the last big tests to find any flaws,” said JPL’s Jordan Evans, the mission’s project manager. “Our engineers performed a planned and challenging set of tests that put the system through its paces. What we found is that the spacecraft can handle the environments it will see during and after launch. The system performed very well and is working as expected.”

Europa Clipper is seen in the 25-foot space simulator at JPL in February, before the start of the thermal vacuum tests. A battery of tests ensures that a NASA spacecraft can withstand the extreme hot, cold and airless environment of space.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The gauntlet

The final environmental test for Europa Clipper was also one of the most elaborate, requiring 16 days to complete. The spacecraft is the largest NASA has ever built for a planetary mission and one of the largest ever to fit into JPL’s historic 85-foot-tall, 25-foot-wide (26-meter-by-8-meter) Thermal Vacuum Chamber. TVAC. The machine known as the 25-foot Space Simulator , the chamber creates an almost perfect vacuum inside to mimic the airless environment of space.

At the same time, engineers subjected the hardware to the high temperatures it would experience on the side of Europa Clipper that faces the sun while the spacecraft is close to Earth. Powerful light beams at the base of the space simulator bounced off a massive mirror at the top to mimic the heat the spacecraft would endure.

Watch as engineers and technicians move NASA’s Europa Clipper into the thermal vacuum chamber at JPL in February 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

To simulate the journey away from the sun, the lamps were dimmed and tubes filled with liquid nitrogen in the walls of the chamber to cool them to temperatures replicating space. The team then tested whether the spacecraft could heat itself, monitoring it with about 500 temperature sensors, each of which was attached by hand.

TVAC marked the culmination of environmental testing, which included a regime of tests to ensure that the electrical and magnetic components that make up the spacecraft do not interfere with each other.

The track also passed vibration, shock and acoustic tests. During a vibration test, the spacecraft was repeatedly shaken — up and down and side to side — the same way it would be jolted aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket during liftoff. Shock tests included pyrotechnics to mimic the explosive jolt the spacecraft would receive when it separated from the rocket to fly its mission. Finally, acoustic tests ensured Europa Clipper could withstand launch noise, with the rocket’s rumble so loud it could damage the spacecraft if it wasn’t loud enough.

“There’s still work to do, but we’re on track to launch on time,” Evans said. “And the fact that this test was so successful is a huge positive and helps us rest easier.”

NASA’s Europa Clipper is seen lifted into the space simulator at JPL in February. Thermal vacuum tests, which lasted 16 days, ensure the spacecraft will withstand the harsh conditions of space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Looking for launch

Later this spring, the spacecraft will be sent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where teams of engineers and technicians will make final preparations with eyes on the clock. The Europa Clipper launch period opens on October 10.

After liftoff, the spacecraft will zoom toward Mars, and by the end of February 2025, it will be close enough to use the red planet’s gravity for added momentum. From there, the solar-powered spacecraft will head back toward Earth to get another slingshot boost — from our planet’s gravitational field — in December 2026.

It then moves on to the outer solar system, where Europa Clipper is scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2030. The spacecraft will circle the gas giant as it flies past Europa 49 times, and will dive up to 25 kilometers from the moon’s surface. Collect data with its suite of powerful scientific tools. The information gathered will tell scientists more about the moon’s watery interior.

NASA’s Europa Clipper is seen in the High Bay 1 clean room inside JPL’s Space Shuttle Facility in January. The tent around the spacecraft was erected to support electromagnetic testing, which was part of an environmental testing regime. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

More on the mission

Europa Clipper’s primary scientific goal is to determine whether there are places beneath the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa that could support life. The mission’s three main 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.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL is leading the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the spacecraft’s main body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Mission Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, performs program management for the Europa Clipper mission.