According to RCO News Agency, quoted by Space, Clipper can now enter the final stages of launch. The probe is scheduled to travel to space on October 10 with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center.
Laura Leshin, director of NASA’s JPL Laboratory in California, said: I am happy to announce that we are confident in our spacecraft and our team is ready for launch operations.
This is while passing the KDP-E test a few months ago seems very far-fetched for this 5 billion dollar mission. The project team discovered in May that the Clipper transistors that control the flow of electricity in the spacecraft were also malfunctioning when exposed to lower-than-anticipated doses. This may present a major challenge because Europa’s moon is in a region full of hot rays due to Jupiter’s very strong magnetic field.
After 4 months of non-stop testing and analysis, the Clipper project team announced that the transistors can withstand more radiation during the probe’s 4-year mission.
This Jupiter-orbiting probe is supposed to examine Europa’s moon during 50 approaches to the planet, which, according to experts, has a large ocean under its icy crust.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has built for planetary exploration. The solar panels of this huge device are about 30 meters and the size of a basketball court. Clipper will weigh about 6,000 kg when launched, half of which is related to the fuel volume.
The probe carries 9 scientific instruments and is expected to reach Jupiter by 2030.
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