The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA has awarded the launch services contract of its upcoming Europe Clipper mission to Elon Musk’s SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.).
Dubbed as the Europe Clipper mission, NASA is all set to launch the mission in October 2024 when SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will carry the spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA awarded the 178 million dollars contract to Elon’s company that will be launched on Falcon Heavy which is a 23-story partly reusable rocket that made its maiden launch to orbit in 2019 carrying its first commercial payload. It will be partly used to launch the Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter’s icy-moon Europa which is approximately 382 million miles away from the Earth.
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will be launched towards the supergiant planet in the solar system, Jupiter, where it will make flybys towards its icy-moon Europa which is the size of 90 percent of the Earth’s moon. The spacecraft will travel in an elliptical path around Europa equipped with all the modern scientific instruments needed to measure the salinity and the depth of the ocean on Europa as well as the thickness of the icy shell.
The mission will also determine the composition of the surface as well as its geology, subsurface lakes, and the water vapor rising from the Europa’s crust. The moon is estimated to have an icy shell measuring 10 to 15 miles in thickness while the subsurface ocean that I mentioned away is estimated to be around 40 to 100 miles deep.
The mission will also have a crucial objective to produce high-resolution images of Europa’s surface that can be analyzed on the Earth. The mission will help researchers ascertain the habitability as Europa is considered as a potential place to be for humans after Earth and potentially the red planet aka Mars.
Talking about the launch and operations, the JPL will lead in the development of the spacecraft in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory while NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington will handle the launch services program where the latter has contracted Musk’s SpaceX to carry out the launch at a whopping 178 million dollar deal.
