Space travel Nasa probe explores Jupiter's moon Europa as a habitat
The US space agency Nasa is sending a probe to Jupiter's moon Europa. The Europa Clipper probe is to reach the moon in April 2030 and investigate whether life is possible there.
14.10.2024, 14:16
SDA
Scientists assume that there is an ocean of liquid water beneath the moon's icy surface. According to Nasa, the mission is scheduled to launch from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida on Monday at the earliest. The probe is to be launched into space using a Falcon rocket from SpaceX.
The mission will not directly search for signs of life, but rather for the answer to the question: Does Europa have the conditions that would make life possible? If this is the case, another mission will be launched to clarify whether life is present.
Impressive probe
Never before has NASA used such a large probe for an interplanetary investigation. It is 30 meters wide when its solar panels are fully deployed to capture the faint light that reaches Jupiter.
Europa Clipper is equipped with numerous sophisticated instruments, including cameras, radar, a spectrograph and a magnetometer to measure magnetic forces. The mission will determine the structure and composition of Europa's icy surface, the depth and even the salinity of its ocean.
It will also investigate how Jupiter and Europa interact - for example, to find out whether water reaches the surface in some places. The aim is to find out whether the three components necessary for life are present: Water, energy and some chemical compounds.
If these conditions are met on Europa, life could be found in the ocean in the form of primitive bacteria, according to Nasa. However, the bacteria would probably be at too great a depth to be detected by Europa Clipper.
Arrival in April 2030
The probe will travel 2.9 billion kilometers on its journey to Jupiter and is expected to arrive there in April 2030. The main mission will then take another four years. The probe will fly close to Europa 49 times, coming within 25 kilometers of the moon. It will be exposed to intense radioactive radiation equivalent to several million chest X-rays each time.
For its part, the European Space Agency (ESA) sent a probe in the direction of Jupiter in April. The Juice probe's journey to the planet's orbit is expected to take a total of eight years. This probe will also target the icy moons and search for life.
