The launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper mission probe is scheduled for Monday. The scientific goal is to find out if there are places beneath the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon that could support life. Follow the takeoff live.
Another livable planet? NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will take off this Monday, October 14, around 6 p.m. French time, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, aboard a powerful Falcon Heavy rocket from SpaceX.
The spacecraft will travel nearly 3 billion kilometers to reach Jupiter in April 2030. It will orbit the planet and make more than 50 close flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa to determine if the place is habitable.
“This is an opportunity for us to explore not a world that may have been habitable billions of years ago,” like Mars, “but a world that could be habitable today, right now », enthused Curt Niebur, scientific manager for the mission.
“Europe is one of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth,” Gina DiBraccio, responsible at NASA, also underlined at a press conference.
“Europe is one of the most promising places to search for life beyond Earth”
The mission’s three main science goals are to determine the thickness of the ice shell, how the ocean interacts with the surface, and the composition and geology of the moon.
The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential of habitable worlds beyond our planet. Evidence already suggests that there is an ocean containing more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft developed by NASA. It measures 5 meters high, spans 30.5 meters and weighs more than 3.2 tonnes (without propellant). The machine carries nine scientific instruments and a gravity experiment which uses the telecommunications system.
NASA clarifies that Europa Clipper is not “a life detection mission.”
