The largest planetary exploration spacecraft built by NASA is ready to embark on its mission to Jupiter and its moon Europa, which NASA scientists believe is one of the best options for finding life beyond Earth.
The spacecraft will explore beneath Europa’s icy crust to determine if conditions there could support life. “This is a chance for us to explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable right now,” said program scientist Kurt Niebur.
Named Clipper, this is the largest spacecraft NASA has created for exploring another planet. It will take five and a half years to reach Jupiter, getting significantly closer than any previous spacecraft.
Europa, one of Jupiter’s 95 known moons, is nearly the size of Earth’s moon and is encased in an ice layer estimated to be 15 to 24 kilometers thick. Scientists believe this frozen crust hides an ocean that could be over 120 kilometers deep. The Hubble Space Telescope has observed what appear to be geysers erupting from Europa’s surface.
Photo: NASA/printscreen video