Europa Clipper is being prepared for a five-year mission to Europa, one of the moons orbiting Jupiter, and was hosted by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on a sunny Thursday morning in Pasadena, California. decryption And other journalists can also see it up close.
Although the spacecraft is equipped with a lot of cutting-edge technology, it does not have AI chatbots.
clipper mission
Launching in October, Europa Clipper will study the Galilee moon Europa through a series of flybys in orbit around Jupiter. The Europa Clipper mission is designed to document Jupiter’s moons and assess their habitability. Conduct detailed reconnaissance, study the ice surface and subterranean oceans, look for signs of life, analyze the composition and geology of the Moon.
Media day began at the NASA/JPL Visitor Center, where we did security checks, issued badges, and met our guides.
We boarded the tour bus and headed to the building where the Europa Clipper was stored and began entering the ‘clean room’.
Meet the Europa Clipper
Getting ready to enter the Europa Clipper warehouse was an interesting experience. First, we were told to walk on a sticky mat that removed any dirt or residual particles from our shoes.
After cleaning the shoes, we turned over all the equipment to take to the warehouse for cleaning before it was returned to us. Next, we were led into a room filled with gowns and protective gear.
After putting on the suit and before entering the clean room, the last step was to take an air shower to remove any dust or foreign substances one last time. As I entered the warehouse where the Europa Clipper was stored, the first thing I noticed was how big the room was.
“We need every inch of this space to put all the parts of the Europa Clipper in place. Now it’s time to take the device out,” said a member of the quality assurance team. decryptionPointing to the high ceiling.
How was it made?
My first impression of the Europa Clipper was how delicate it looked, but the engineering team said the orbiter was built to take a punch.
“We handle it delicately and then take it to a shaker where we simulate launch conditions and shake the spacecraft very hard,” said JPL harness engineer Luis Aguila. decryption. “This way we can make sure everything is safe and there won’t be any problems along the way, and then we test it again,” he said, noting that the team conducted vibration tests earlier this year.
Aguila also noted that the Europa Clipper has a total weight of 13,000 pounds.
According to Europa Clipper project manager Jordan Evans, the shape and design are intentional and serve multiple purposes.
“The shape is determined by a number of factors: it has to fit inside the rocket, and since the rocket is only 5 meters (about 16.4 feet) in diameter, everything, including the solar array, has to fit,” Evans said. decryption. “Then, as we do each flyby, we have different scientific instruments looking down at the lunar surface.”
Evans explained that some of the instruments were designed to analyze the lunar atmosphere and were therefore positioned to face the direction the spacecraft was flying. Other equipment must be isolated from the spacecraft to avoid interference. Evans emphasized that each piece of equipment has specific requirements that must be incorporated into the design of the Europa Clipper.
The design of Europa Clipper involves a complex process of balancing these requirements to ensure that one does not negatively impact the other, leading to the final design of the spacecraft, Evans said.
Bringing the data collected by Europa Clipper back to Earth will require a 3-meter (about 9.84 feet) high-gain antenna mounted on top of the spacecraft.
“This applies to the Deep Space Network, which we also operate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” Evans said. “So wherever Jupiter and the Europa Clipper are relative to Earth, one of the ground stations around Earth can see the spacecraft directly,” he said. The spacecraft could send data through large antennas, he added. Back to the people on earth.
AI and space exploration
Artificial intelligence (AI) has played an important role in recent space exploration efforts. Last October, a group of scientists and astronomers at Northwestern University reported using AI to identify and classify supernovae in real time.
Although artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in space exploration and NASA/JPL projects, Evans said the Europa Clipper does not use AI in any meaningful way.
“No, you can think of it as closer to a standard computer,” added flight systems engineer Tracy Drain. “There’s software that runs everything fully programmed to tell it what to do.”
There is a 52-minute delay each way to access the cloud on Earth, so everything needed to operate the spacecraft must be on board.
After visiting the Europa Clipper and going through the process of removing all of our protective gear, we took a shuttle bus to the Von Karmann Auditorium to learn more about the facility and its mission.
high tech history
Founded in 1943, JPL dates back to the 1930s through the work of a group of Caltech students, teachers, and enthusiasts called the “Suicide Squad” by their colleagues. The Suicide Squad included American aeronautical engineer Frank Malina, Hungarian aerospace engineer Theodore von Kármán, and rocket scientist, chemist, and occultist John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons.
In December 1958, JPL was absorbed into the newly created NASA.
After visiting the Europa Clipper and removing all protective gear, we took a shuttle bus to the Von Karmann Auditorium. The space was lined with posters and displays of past and present NASA/JPL missions, including Voyager, Cassini, and, of course, Europa Clipper.
Look, don’t touch.
“The primary goal is not a life detection mission, but to find environments that can support life,” said Bonnie Buratti, JPL associate project scientist. decryption. “We are looking for environments where life can form and sustain.”
Buratti said Europa’s surface appears to be covered in ice, but unlike the icy world in the 2014 Christopher Nolan film “Interstellar,” it’s unclear whether the moon’s surface is safe to land on or walk on.
As Buratti explains, evidence suggests that visible sediment deposits, perhaps feather deposits, form a fragile surface. These distinct layers can hide any gaps that might otherwise fall into the rest of the area.
“One of the things we’ll be looking for is activity, because if you look at pictures of Europa, it doesn’t look like there are a lot of craters,” Buratti said. “Geology has been active for at least 50 million years, which is the blink of an eye in geological time.”
As Buratti explains, if the Europa Clipper finds signs of life on the moon, it should not be a cause for concern, but rather an acknowledgment that further exploration is needed and that landing on the lunar surface is not currently an option.
“Currently, NASA has no plans to land on Europa,” Burrata said. “But if we find something that suggests life, it’s not our job to find environments that can sustain life. “I think NASA will probably plan to send (another mission) there.”
the letter
Visiting the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was an amazing experience, and for a lifelong fan of space exploration and history, it was like Christmas came early. When asked how a middle school or high school student interested in science and space can get a job at JPL, Drain said the door is open to anyone.
“The biggest thing I want to tell kids is you don’t have to be an engineer or a scientist to do this kind of work,” said Drain, emphasizing critical thinking as a key skill. “If you’re interested in art, journalism, computer science or finance, there are so many ways you can work here while doing something related to space.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
