ICYMI: What We Know About NASA's Europa Mission

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🗓️ 15 October 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

A mission to study one of the solar system's most promising environments is underway.

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft was designed to explore its namesake, Jupiter's moon Europa, launched on Monday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Europa Clipper will serve as the organization's first spacecraft dedicated to studying an ice-covered ocean world in our solar system.

It aims to determine whether the moon could be habitable for life as we know it. The spacecraft will carry nine instruments and a gravity experiment intended to investigate the ocean beneath Europa's thick ice shell.

We discuss the mission with Author David W. Brown. His latest book, "The Mission," chronicles the quest to study this remarkable celestial body.

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0:00.0	You're listening to the one a podcast. I'm Todd Zwyllic and this is in case you missed it where we bring you some of the week's most interesting conversations you might have missed.
0:17.0	Five, four, three, two, one, ignition and lift off lift off
0:26.4	lift off a falcon heavy with Europa Clipper unveiling the mysteries of an enormous
0:31.2	ocean lurking beneath the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa.
0:36.0	Oh, that's right. NASA's six-year journey to Jupiter has begun.
0:41.0	The solar-powered spacecraft Europa Clipper ascended clear skies on Monday after lifting off from
0:46.6	Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It's expected to reach Jupiter in April 2030 to study the moon Europa and as we heard Europa has an icy
0:57.5	surface probably an ocean underneath that it's about the size of Earth's moon
1:01.6	and it could all have the ingredients to life.
1:06.0	After the break we'll talk more about the mission and details on Europa with David
1:10.8	W Brown. He's author of the mission, which tracks NASA's interplanetary mission to Europa.
1:17.0	We'll be back with more in just a moment.
1:19.0	Stay with us. Join to me now from New Orleans is David W Brown. He's the author of the Mission, which tracks
1:31.6	NASA's Deep Space mission to Europa.
1:34.1	David, welcome.
1:36.1	Thank you for having me.
1:37.1	All right, some basics.
1:38.1	Europa, why does it stand out?
1:40.2	Why go?
1:42.0	Well, Europa's covered in the Shell of ice, as you said, and beneath it is a liquid saltwater ocean,
1:47.0	with about twice the amount of salt water
1:49.7	is all of Earth's oceans combined. But when I say salt water, I don't mean some weird alien goo that fits a scientific technical definition of water,
	...

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