DECRYPTION – The American space agency is going to study the subterranean ocean of the moon Europa, one of the most favorable environments for the emergence of extraterrestrial life in the Solar System.
The American probe Europa Clipper took off Monday evening from Cape Canaveral in Florida aboard SpaceX’s powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. As planned after its rocket release, the $5.2 billion spacecraft successfully deployed its massive solar panels, one of the critical first phases of a long journey to Jupiter and its icy moons.
If NASA previously used radioisotope thermoelectric generators (operating on plutonium) to supply electricity for its most distant exploration missions, beyond the orbit of Mars, this time the agency has opted for solar, less risky in the event of an explosion on takeoff.
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Disadvantage, this option requires a very large surface area of photovoltaic sensors because Jupiter is so far from the Sun that solar energy is 25 times less abundant there (4%) than on Earth. This explains why the probe is so large, roughly the length of a field of…
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