2024-03-08 17:41:45
This side of a commemorative plaque mounted on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft features American Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” – NASA/JPL-CALTECH
MADRID, 8 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission bound for Jupiter’s moon Europa, with strong evidence of an ocean beneath its icy crust, It will be released in October with information engraved on a metal plate.
At the heart of the plaque is a recording of the manuscript of American poet laureate Ada Limón “In praise of mystery: a poem for Europe”, along with a silicon microchip stamped with more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public. The microchip will be the centerpiece of an illustration of a bottle in the middle of the Jovian system, in reference to the campaign “Message in a Bottle” from NASA, which invited the public to submit their names with the spacecraft.
A ‘golden record’ for Europe made of metallic tantalum and approximately 18 by 28 centimeters, the plate features graphic elements on both sides. The outward-facing panel features art highlighting Earth’s connection to Europe. Linguists compiled recordings of the word “water” spoken in 103 languages, from language families around the world. The audio files were converted into waveforms (visual representations of sound waves) and recorded on the board. Waveforms radiate from a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for ‘water’.
In the spirit of the Voyager spacecraft’s Golden Record, which carries sounds and images to convey the richness and diversity of life on Earth, the layered message on Europa Clipper, scheduled to launch in October, aims to spark the imagination and offer a unifying vision.
“The content and design of the Europa Clipper license plate are full of meaning,” he said. it’s a statement Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Sciences Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The plaque combines the best that humanity has to offer across the universe: science, technology, education, art and mathematics. The message of connection through water, essential for all forms of life as we know it, perfectly illustrates the link between the Earth and this mysterious ocean world that we intend to explore“.
In 2030, after a journey of 2.6 billion kilometers, Europa Clipper will begin orbiting Jupiter, carrying out 49 close flyovers of Europe. To determine whether conditions exist that can support life, the spacecraft’s powerful suite of scientific instruments will collect data about the moon’s subsurface ocean, icy crust, thin atmosphere, and space environment. The electronics for those instruments are housed in a huge metal dome designed to protect them from Jupiter’s devastating radiation. The commemorative plaque will seal an opening in the vault.
Because the search for habitable conditions is critical to the mission, the Drake Equation is also engraved on the plaque, on the inward-facing side. Astronomer Frank Drake developed the mathematical formulation in 1961 to estimate the possibility of finding advanced civilizations beyond Earth. Since then, the equation has inspired and guided research in astrobiology and related fields.
Additionally, the artwork on the inner side of the plaque will include a reference to radio frequencies considered plausible for interstellar communication, symbolizing how humanity uses this radio band to hear messages from the cosmos. These particular frequencies coincide with the radio waves emitted into space by the components of water and are known to astronomers as the “water hole.” On the plate they are represented as radio emission lines.
Finally, the plaque includes a portrait of one of the founders of planetary science, Ron Greeley, whose early efforts to develop a mission to Europa two decades ago laid the foundation for the Europa Clipper.
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