The technical challenge in the Europa Clipper space mission caused the NASA engineering team to worry

Late last spring, Kurt Niebuhr, NASA’s chief flight program scientist, faced a major challenge when he received a report of a serious technical problem with the Europa Clipper space mission. The news, described as a “first story,” suggested that the success of one of NASA’s most important science missions was in jeopardy.

According to Tekna Technology Media’s astronomy news service, the Europa Clipper mission, with the aim of investigating the habitability of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, has cost more than 5 billion dollars. The giant spacecraft, which is about the size of a basketball court, was supposed to send valuable data back to scientists by passing by Europa repeatedly.

But the discovery of a defect in the transistors used in this spacecraft, which were designed to withstand the intense radiation conditions around Jupiter, was considered a serious threat to the success of this mission. These transistors played a vital role in controlling various spacecraft systems and their failure could mean the end of the mission.

NASA engineering teams formed a special group to investigate the dimensions of this problem. After numerous tests, it was found that a large number of transistors used in spacecraft are vulnerable to cosmic rays. Replacing this large number of transistors, in addition to being very expensive, would have been time-consuming and likely to have resulted in significant delays in the launch of the spacecraft. This technical challenge presented NASA engineering teams with one of the most complex technical issues in the history of space exploration. They had to find a quick and effective solution to this problem in order to save the Europa Clipper mission.