The US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intends to launch a spacecraft, Europa Clipper, to the moon Europa, which orbits Jupiter, to find out whether it has the right conditions for life or not.
The solar-powered vehicle will be launched, carrying nine scientific instruments, to the Europa satellite, aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket, from inside the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, southeast of the United States of America.
Bonnie Buratti, deputy chief scientist for the mission and a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: We are not a mission to discover life, but we are only looking for conditions suitable for life, as there is strong evidence that the components of life exist on the moon Europa, and therefore We have to go there to find out.
The vehicle is scheduled to enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030, after covering a distance of 2.9 billion kilometers in a journey that will take about five and a half years.
Scientists show great interest in the salt water ocean, which previous studies indicated is located under the ice cover of the moon Europa.
It is noteworthy that Europa Clipper is considered the largest spacecraft built by NASA to carry out missions related to the planets, as it is 30.5 meters long, 17.6 meters wide, and weighs approximately six thousand kilograms.
The spacecraft has three main goals: measuring the thickness of Europa’s icy outer layer, monitoring its interactions with its interior, knowing the moon’s composition, and determining its geological characteristics.