Europa Clipper Mission Countdown: Preview to Launch

NASA will host a news conference at 8am PDT / 11am EDT Tuesday, Sept. 17, to discuss the upcoming Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

Targeting an Oct. 10 launch, Europa Clipper aims to determine whether Jupiter’s moon Europa potentially has the ingredients necessary for life.

Participants in the news conference include:
Gina DiBraccio, acting director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
Jordan Evans, project manager, Europa Clipper, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Armando Piloto, senior mission manager, NASA’s Launch Services Program
Stuart Hill, propulsion module delivery manager, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Bonnie Buratti, deputy project scientist, Europa Clipper, JPL

For more information on the mission, go to: https://europa.nasa.gov/

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[Music] how could you not be excited about something as Monumental as
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this in just a few weeks NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will launch on a
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journey to a mysterious moon of Jupiter we're here today to talk about why we're going to this Moon Europa and the final
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preparations to get theace spacecraft to the Launchpad I'm Dari cook welcome to
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NASA's jet propulsion laboratory we're here live to talk about Europa Clipper today I'm joined by members of the
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Europa Clipper mission team some of them here with me at JPL and some of them coming in remotely they're here to take
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your questions about the Europa Clipper Mission today um so I'm going to introduce some of our panelists uh we're
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going to start with NASA planetary science division acting director Gina deio
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we also everyone we also have Europa Clipper project manager Jordan
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Evans launch Services Program senior Mission manager Armando
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piloto propulsion module delivery manager steuart Hill and Deputy project scientist Bonnie
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barate for anyone watching who'd like to ask a question you can use the hashtag
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asknasa on social media our phone lines are also open to the media and if you
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want to ask a question and get in the queue you can press star one to start I'd like to welcome JPL director Lori
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Leen to make some opening remarks thanks J good morning everyone
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and thank you for joining us the EUR Clipper team has been working incredibly hard and our journey of exploration and
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Discovery is about to begin this is an incredibly impressive Mission and you're
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going to hear today from the experts uh who are going to give you an Insider view of how we've gotten here and about
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the science to come but let me just say this is an incredibly impressive Mission and team as you heard in the video it is
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the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built by NASA and one of the biggest things we've ever assembled here
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in our clean room at JPL it's been an extraordinary Journey just to get to this point and really the excitement is
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just beginning because the science lies ahead and we have 10 science investigations that are designed to
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examine Europa this incredible icy ocean Moon from every different perspective
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and to give us great insights into whether this could be a habitable World
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um I want to just take a moment to congratulate our incredible team over
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4,000 people have worked on Europa Clipper since its Inception um since it
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was sort of formally approved about a decade ago uh and those include our team of course
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here at JPL our incredible Partners at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics laboratory incredibly grateful for that
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partnership as well as our colleagues across NASA at at Goddard at Kennedy at
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Marshall at headquarters all of the folks that have supported us to get to where we sit today just a few weeks from
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launch a few weeks from the opening of Europa Clippers launch period we're Inc
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inedibly grateful for that partnership for that collaboration we're incredibly proud of the work that this team has
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done and just know uh they won't tout their own horn so I will uh they are
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have been working literally Round the Clock in some cases to make sure Europa Clipper is just right and ready for
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launch and I'm excited for you to hear the progress there as I close I will say
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I I often talk about these missions as modern Cathedrals they are generation
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quests we have been dreaming we scientists have been dreaming about a mission like Europa Clipper for more
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than 20 years we've been working to build it for 10 years it's going to be another 10 years because Jupiter's so
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far away until we have all the science in the bag and and so it really is a
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very long-term investment and Quest and I'm really proud that as Humanity that
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we choose to undertake these difficult and long-term
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goals things like exploring the unknown out of Jupiter so go Europa Clipper and
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back to you J okay thank you Dr Leen okay I'm gonna hand it over to Dr
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deio all right so it's great to be here today talking about the Clipper Mission and let me just start off by saying that
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NASA is so excited to be one step closer to answering fundamental questions about the solar system and beyond with Europa
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Clipper now Clipper and this mission is really a crucial part of NASA's planetary program within our solar
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system we have the opportunity to really explore a diverse set of planets and planetary bodies so as an Ocean World
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Europa is very intriguing and this mission is going to help us to understand a complex piece of our solar
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system now looking at NASA's planetary Fleet chart that you see here on the screen this demonstrates the diversity
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of our program you can look across the missions that we have that are currently in development and operating in space
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right now so the inner swirl that you see on this chart this is showing the missions that we have at the moon and
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Mars and then the outer swirl focuses on the rest of the solar system showing where our missions are based on their
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location and these missions they they vary in scope so we have our small Focus investigations but then we also have our
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large strategic missions and these are the ones that are of national importance now Clipper which you can see that's
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highlighted in the bottom left of this chart that's one of those large strategic missions that's a NASA Flagship Mission and the science goals
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of clipper are based on recommendations not just from NASA but the greater science community so Clipper and the
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science that it's going to achieve this has been a decadal priority it's been a priority across the decades but also for
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decades to come just as Lori was saying so one of the reasons that Clipper is
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such a high priority is be because we have the opportunity to go to a new place that we've never explored before
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in depth within our planetary Fleet that you see here we've explored the gas giants planets in the outer solar system
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we've explored the rockier terrestrial planets as well in the inner solar system and we have exciting missions
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that are currently visiting asteroids and other small bodies but now we finally have this dedicated mission that
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will go to explore an ocean World in depth and this is really an important part of our solar system and beyond
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because we think the ocean worlds might actually be a common type of world outside of our solar system so as we
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move our next image here of Europa we can see that it has some of these amazing features on its icy crust and
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scientists believe that Europa is one of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth and so just to be
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clear here Clipper is not actually going to look for life itself but it's going to characterize the habitability of
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Europa and to do this we have a powerful Suite of instruments that you'll hear about in just a little bit from some of
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our other panel members but some things that Clipper will actually do to assess the habitability of Europa includes
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characterizing the subsurface ocean we're going to determine things like the solinity of this ocean and just how deep
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it actually is we want to investigate the structure of the ice crust that's overlying this ocean and search for the
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existence of subsurface Lakes as well and then finally we're really looking to understand the materials that make up
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Europa we want to understand the composition of the strange reddish brown material that you see on the surface
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here in this image but also other parts of Europa as well and so given everything that we've really learned
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about necessary conditions for Life Clipper is going to tell us if Europa has all of these ingredients for life so
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what we learn with Clipper and the habitability of Europa this is going to pave the way for the future for future
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missions to Europa and elsewhere in our solar system where we can search more directly for life so Clipper is going to
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be the first in-depth mission that will allow us to characterize habitability on what could be the most common type of
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inhabited World in our universe so before I pass it on uh to our next speaker what I'd like to do is just take
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a moment to talk about what I'm most looking forward to and it's really hard to pick just one thing so I'd like to
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focus on both the people and the science here as Lori was saying you know our team has been working so hard not only
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over the past many many years but especially over these last few months I've been watching them really push to get to the finish line here with launch
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and so I'm really looking forward to experiencing the launch with everybody um in just some short time here but also
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as a scientist I'm really looking forward to the data I can't wait to see these highresolution images once we make
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it to Europa to really see what the surface is like and as somebody with magnetometer experience I'm really
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excited to look at the the magnetic field data to understand how we're characterizing that subsurface ocean of
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Europa so with that I'm going to turn it over to Jordan Evans who is the Europa Clipper project manager thank you very
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much Dr derio uh I'm excited to say that we are headed to the Launchpad and ready to fly Europe a clip Mission at Jupiter
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I'd like to start with a little bit of current status the Europa Clipper project has gotten the green light from headquarters to prepare for the
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Launchpad we've recently completed all of the Closeouts that we had planned prior to the start of fueling if you could please bring up my first photo
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showing the latest spacecraft configuration this was taken last week just prior to moving the propellant loading scaffold over there on the right
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into place and connecting the lines to start fueling Europa Clippers internal fuel tanks we're on track for our launch
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period that as was mentioned opens October 10th and this week we're continuing to load the propellant into
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the spacecraft and then we'll do a few days of final Closeouts where we install our install before flight items remove
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the red tag remove before flight items we're quickly approaching the start of what we call joint operations where the
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Europa Clipper team and the SpaceX launch vehicle team come together and start their integrated activities you'll
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hear more from Armando about NASA's launch Services Program activities and the amazing team that they've assembled
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for Europa Clipper after nearly a thousand days of assembly test and launch operations or
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at low as we call it because we like acronyms the work we've accomplished ensures that we're ready for launch in
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that time the team has uh been busy with the careful and methodical assembly of the spacecraft at JPL after receiving
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key pieces of Hardware from the Applied Physics lab and the science instruments from JPL APL and our four additional
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institutions involved there's been extensive testing at JPL at APL and also
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at Nasa Goddard if you could please bring up my short video about testing we've taken Europa Clipper into a vacuum
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chamber to sim at the cold vacuum of space to ensure the spacecraft can maintain temperature and function over
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that hot and cold portions of the mission we did vibration and acoustic testing to shake the spacecraft like it
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will experience on the Falcon heavy rocket and blast it with the rocket noise that it'll experience inside the
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Falcon heavy fairing we tested the hardware and software together and system tests tricking Europa Clipper
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into thinking that it's flying um and from launch all the way through flybys of Europa we tested it in the presence
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of problems we pulled wires out to see that the internal fault protection would recognize that and be able to switch to
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backup Communications lines we also did extensive analysis and testing of electronics and circuits under the
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conditions at Jupiter including a full Suite of electromagnetic compatibility testing to ensure that all of the instruments can operate together with
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each precious flyby of Europa one of the major Milestones we've successfully passed at the cape is the installation
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of Europa Clippers massive solar rays and the reason radar antennas you see in the model here on the side the re
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there's three reason antennas radar antennas connected to the the Solar Ray they came together for the first time at the cape and they were tested not only
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with each other but also with the reason electronics that are inside a radiation Vault just below our very large High Gain
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antenna um while launch may seem like the beginning of the mission to many the Europa Clipper team has been uh solving
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some very tough engineering challenges to get to this point doing the first in-depth study of a moon uh Europa is
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extremely difficult if you can please bring up the trajectory video one big challenge is just getting to to Jupiter
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and we do that with what we call a Mega trajectory a Mars Earth gravity assist we steal a little bit of angular momentum from Mars and Earth and then
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even with that it still takes five and a half years to get to Jupiter and then during that time we travel a distance of 1.8 billion miles once we arrive the
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science tour and trajectory design is equally as challenging if you've heard of the three body problem that's been
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popularized by a recent TV show Jupiter is essentially a seven body problem you've got Jupiter the Sun the ropa
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Clipper spacecraft and the four Galilean moons our orbital trajectory lead says that there 's no other place in the
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solar system that is so dynamically complex in terms of gravity our mission does flybys of Europa um but is actually
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in orbit around Jupiter and so for the primary Mission we do 49 flybys but in the end we end up orbiting Jupiter 80
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times and to be clear we're not landing on on Europa make no attempt to land there we do get as close as 25
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kilometers above the surface that's about 16 miles um and these flybys cover both hemispheres of the Moon and a
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variety of latitudes to get us near Global coverage of the Moon moon for the science instruments another challenge is
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having a solar powered Mission at Jupiter we had to build these giant solar panels to capture the small amount
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of sunlight at Jupiter to power the spacecraft and that's led us to having the largest planetary spacecraft for
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NASA ever you'll hear more about the massive solar rays from Stewart Hill a little bit later I think the most
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significant challenge that we've had to deal with on Europa Clipper is radiation if you can please bring up the the
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animation showing Jupiter's radiation environment this is an artist rendition of the magnetic field and the int
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radiation environment you can't really see the magnetic field lines as they're shown here but it helps give you a sense of that radiation that trapped
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environment where Europa and the three other Galilean moon's orbit that radiation environment is created by this
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magnetic field that is 20,000 times more powerful than Earth's magnetic field and that field spins and accelerates and
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captures particles basically creating a giant particle accelerator that the Europa Clipper spacecraft has to fly
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through uh with each of these science flybys so we designed a science tour that dips in and out of these most this
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most hazardous radiation environment close to Europa we fly in we get the science data we need we fly out process
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the data send it back to Earth and then go back for another flyby where again the spacecraft bathes in that radiation
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environment and each of those flybys uh the surface of the spacecraft is exposed to the equivalent of a few million chest
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x-rays and yet the Europa Clipper instruments have to be sensitive enough to gather the critical information that
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scientists need to learn about the moon so as we look forward to launch day I'd like to share some thoughts about launch
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on launch day we'll have our test team uh that has assembled the Europa Clipper stationed at Kennedy Space Center uh
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they'll get the spacecraft into the proper power configuration they'll let me know the spacecraft is ready to go so I can let launch Services know that as
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well and in then parallel we have a combined JPL APL GED team that'll be in Mission Control here at JPL keeping a
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close eye on the spacecraft and making sure that it works as it's supposed to once it's off the rocket if you could
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please bring up the fifth image the the artist concept of of Europa Clipper in space I can say the excitement is
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building with each passing day and the thing that I'm most looking forward to is getting through launch and deployment of the solar race as project manager my
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primary responsibility is managing the risk of this Mission and that that deployment of the solar rays separation
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from the spacecraft that all happens about three and a half hours after launch and is the moment when we will have retired a tremendous amount of risk
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on this Mission um and we will begin our 1.8 billion mile journey to perform the science that this mission was designed
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to do at this point I'd like to hand it over to my dear friend Armando paloto to talk more about the road to Launch
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thank you Jordan um I am a senior Miss manager for the loan services program here at Kennedy and we are responsible
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for managing the alone service provided by SpaceX I'll say up front that we plan to give Europa Clipper a powerful ride
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into space and we are on track for launch Europa Clipper will fly on a
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falcon heavy Expendable configuration this is the variation of Fon heavy where
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all three cores are spent and all of the recovery hardare where removed prior to launch we want to make those stages as
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light as possible so that we can maximize the lift capacity of the vehicle and ensure that all the fuel on
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board the launch vehicle is used towards propelling the spacecraft to reach the esape velocity that's needed I'll point
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out that during the second stage burn of the second stage the vehicle with the
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spacecraft which is very heavy will be traveling approximately 25,000 miles per hour which will be the fastest speed for
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a second stage ever for Europa Clipper the side
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boosters uh that we fly on our mission are picture there they flew previously on the psyche Mission and they're now on
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their Sixth and final flight all of the other Hardware that we're using for our
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mission is new in terms of History the Falcon heavy configuration has launched
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10 times previously so this will be the 11th but only the second Flight of the
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Expendable configuration we plan to launch uh
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Europa Clipper out of 39a this is the historic pad where Apollo and Sho launches occurred many years ago and
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it's the same pad LSP and SpaceX teed up recently to launch psyche and the ghost
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view Mission work at the pad is active the SpaceX team is in the process of
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converting it from a falcon 9 to a falcon heavy configuration and I'll say
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that there's no other launches plan out of this pad prior to eura Clipper so we are 100% focused on getting this pad and
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the vehicle ready the analyze launch window for our mission starts on octember 10th 2004 and it has been
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extended to November 6 um 2024 based on additional
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performance implemented for the mission our original launch date um window ended
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at on October 30 but again we've been able to extend based on some additional performance that spasis was able to um
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squeeze out of the launch vehicle um those additional dat are only for contingency only and um if we need them
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they're there for use in terms of the work ahead the design of the final trajectory is being optimized as we
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speak um space is in the process of getting the final Mass property engine tables and trying to squeeze as much out
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of the vehicle as we can in terms of the hardware that we need to launch europea Clipper all is here at the on site
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getting processed the side boosters are going through U final refurbishment and
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we expect to start booster made at the end of this week I'll point out that for
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our mission there's no requirement for a static fire test uh it's being determined not required based on the
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health of the launch vehicle and the um ground system there's a beautiful
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picture there of the Falon heavy stacked that was taken fors prior to rolling out
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for their static fire test we expect to be in a similar configuration to that one here in the beginning of
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October in terms of the joint operations activating our processing on schedule
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the hardware that we need to perform that work it's all getting clean sampled
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and it should be ready uh next week for start of the joint operations once the spacecraft is fully
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fueled we expect to transport the encaps assembly from the payload processing
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facility to 39 approximately 6 days before launch once we get there will'll make to
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the front of the rocket and the spacecraft will do some electrical testing and it will roll out to the pad
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approximately 48 hours before launch our launch of October 10th is approved by
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the range and we also have two additional backup days in case those are needed Europa Clipper will be lsb's
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105th launch and it is my Mission as Mission manager but what makes this
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Mission really special to me has been the great team that I've had the opportunity to work over the last few
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years and more importantly the science that we're getting out those missions which is off the chge it's one of a kind
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and I'm just proud to be part of the team that will get the Spectra into space and in rout to collecting so much
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uh amazing science so I'll summarize and I'll say that we're ready activities are
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progressing on schedule and and um with that I'll turn it over to our next speaker Stuart
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Hill hello everybody I'm steuart Hill and I'm the product delivery manager of the propulsion module here at the Johns
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Hopkins Applied Physics laboratory first of all I just want everybody to know how excited APL and goded are to have
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provided such key pieces of infrastructure for the Europa Clipper Mission that'll enable the spacecraft to
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do this exciting uh science mission in and around Jupiter our propulsion module
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is the primary structure of the spacecraft you can go to my first picture there is the primary structure
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of the spacecraft and you can see uh a rotating view of our propulsion module and it's a large cylinder so you keep
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hearing uh the term big or large here about the eurobic cliber spacecraft and the propulsion module is exactly that it
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stands over 10 feet tall and 4 and a half feet in diameter and it provides mounting interfaces for the launch
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vehicle at its aft end as well as for the avionics module and the rest of the spacecraft Hardware at the top end the
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propulsion subsystem is is housed within the entirety of the propulsion module structure and the propulsion module
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structure is basically sized by the two propellant tanks that are within that inner diameter of the cylinder those two
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propellant tanks will hold over 6,000 pounds of propellant as you heard Jordan talk about that propellant is being
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loaded inside those propellant tanks as we speak the propulsion system also consists of 24 engines that will be used
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for propulsive Maneuvers in and around Jupiter during our cruise to Jupiter and then once we release from the launch
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vehicle our biggest maneuver is a 6 to8 hour Jupiter orbit insertion maneuver
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called Joi for short during that maneuver it will be six to8 hours where we will expend 50 to 60% of that 6,000
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pounds of propellant it's hard to believe that this spacecraft is built to carry all that propellant and it will
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carry it for five years and then within 6 eight hours it'll expel 50% of that propellant in that maneuver in addition
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to the propulsion subsystem propulsion modules also delivering the solar rays if you can go to the next video there
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our Solar arays in this video you can see uh in a time-lapse video are being deployed from the actual Europa Clipper
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spacecraft down to Kennedy Space Center just a couple weeks ago again these solar rays are massive and you can see
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that large structure around those solar rays which are used to offload those arrays because they're so large they
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cannot support their own weight in Earth's gravity field that that Gantry allows the solar rays
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to deploy safely and to to mimic the deployment that they'll do right after launch vehicle separation these solar
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rays are enormous you keep hearing large large uh solar rays here they are over
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45 fet in length 15 feet in height and will be used uh throughout the mission
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to bring electrical power to the spacecraft subsystems and instruments as we go through our mission and collect
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the data in our next picture if you can go to the next one we're providing also
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our RF module or Telecom subsystem our Telecom subsystem is primarily also
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accommodated on the propulsion module the Telecom subsystem consists of radios amplifiers uh coax cables wave guide and
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switches there are many antennas spread all over the spacecraft mostly mounted onto the propulsion module but the big
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antenna the big 10-ft antenna that you see here being installed at Kennedy Space Center is the High Gain antenna
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which is a dualband antenna that allows us to get all that exciting science data down to the ground after we get it from
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the Jupiter system so when we do our science uh measurements we'll be pointed
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the spacecraft towards the Europa to your to the Moon of Europa and then once we get out of way from this uh the moon
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we'll be able to Spa turn the spacecraft back towards Earth and use that High Gain antenna and get all the data down
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so all this infrastructure that we've provided here at APL will be uh has been tested at Godard it's been tested at APL
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been tested at JPL and it's been tested at KSC and it's ready or it's near and being ready for launch and so for me
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what I'm most excited about this mission is having been on this program for 10 years we've seen it go from conception
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to reality uh and you know with children whove grown up in those 10 years my
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oldest has almost completed all of his schooling his father's always worked on Clipper and my youngest was born a
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couple months before I started this program they've only known Clipper but they've known Clipper in an abstract
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form that dad works on that uh but with this launch this launch will make it real and it's so exciting to be a part
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of that and if you fast forward and think about what this spacecraft is going to see and what it's going to send
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back to us it's going to be generational and it's so exciting just to be a part of that and to show everybody what we've
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been working on for all these years so with that I'd like to send it over to our Deputy project scientist Bonnie
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Bonnie thanks so much Stuart we're pretty certain there's very strong evidence that the ingredients for
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Life exist on Europa but we have to go there to find out to make sure that it's
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really there let's look at the first image this is a picture of Europa that
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was obtained by the Galileo spacecraft and we see there are bright icy planes intriguing cracks and uh many
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interesting features but perhaps the most important thing is that there are very few craters signaling that there's
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some type of either active geology or recent geology we do know quite a bit
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about Europa from previous missions the first close-ups we got from Voyager 1 and two which went by in
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1979 and uh the Galileo spacecraft not the man Galileo discovered Europa in
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1610 the spacecraft Galileo uh made 12 flybys close flybys of Europa and
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perhaps the most important find ing was that there is a what almost certainly a
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global ocean so let's look at the uh the next image this is a closeup from the
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Galileo spacecraft and here you can see this is in the region known as the chaos terrain there are very few craters just
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a few there are these intriguing cracks and this these unusual features that may
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give evidence for interactions with the global ocean down below so the three
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things we need for life for a habitable environment now just to emphasize we're not a life detection Mission we're just
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looking for the conditions for life is water some type of chemicals
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specifically organic compounds that can serve as food for any primitive organisms and then finally energy so
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let's just uh look at this cutaway model this is the interior the upper part of
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the interior of Europa and first of all we have this ice crust
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we're not certain how it interacts with this Global ocean down below that's one of the things we're we're going to go
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there to find out we're not sure whether water seeps into the ice crust and forms Pockets whether it comes to the surface
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but let's go down here to the interface between the upper Rocky mantle and This Global
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ocean uh one of the things is to find out what that interaction is does it put salt into this ocean but the most
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important thing I think the most intriguing thing is there has to be a source of energy on Europa in order to
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provide a habitable environment there's only about 4% of the solar radiation that comes to Jupiter that is Europa uh
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from the Sun compared to the earth but there's another form of energy Jupiter is huge it has it can contain about a
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thousand Earths so it has a lot of gravity the orbit of Europa around Jupiter about three and a half days when
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it's close to Jupiter it's not quite circular so when it's close it gets kind of squished in due to this gravity and
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then when it's far away it kind of flexes out so this flexing in and out produces heat that's the source of
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energy that we have in fact we see over there in the far side of this cutaway
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there are these intriguing thermal vents that not only are hot but have chemical
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this heat releases liberates chemical energy and this is what we believe is
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the source of of energy on Europa and they may be similar to Thermal events in
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the deep oceans of the Earth where primitive life exists and where life may have originated on the earth so that's
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what we're going to find out by by from Europa Clipper when we get there so um
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let's see uh let's look at the the final um image here the uh video of the
29:49
spacecraft and the instruments yes what are these instruments going to do what are the instruments this is the biggest
29:55
spacecraft ever sent into outer space with the most sophisticated instruments starting in the ultraviolet part of the
30:02
spectrum our eyes can't see that we have UVS to study the surface in the
30:07
atmosphere then we have we have ice which is the cameras there's a wide angle and a narrow angle camera to take
30:14
impressive pictures images down to 1 meter resolution then we have a infrared
30:20
spectrometer to look for the Fingerprints of the chemicals especially organic molecules we're looking for then
30:27
then a uh thermal infrared mapper that will look for hot spots and understand
30:33
the texture of the surface and then there's also an ice penetrating radar which is going to study this crust the
30:40
upper part of the crust and parts of the ocean there's also uh four uh fields and
30:46
particles experiments there's a magnetometer which will study the uh interior especially the ocean try to
30:53
understand what that is like there's a plasma detect which will look at these
30:59
high energetic highly energetic particles around uh uh in the
31:05
environment of Europa then there's also a dust detector and then an instrument
31:11
mpex which will look for these organic sophisticated organic molecules that could provide the food for the if there
31:18
are any primitive organisms uh so those are the the main instruments on board as
31:24
I said they really are the most sophisticated Suite of instruments on the largest spacecraft so there will be
31:30
49 flybys of Europa to study the Moon from pole to pole we we have pretty much
31:37
complete coverage and it will not only realize the main goal of this Mission
31:42
which is to search for a habitable environment where possibly life could Thrive but it will also address the
31:48
three major objectives of understanding the geology of the surface the
31:54
composition and then to characterize the interior so people ask me quite frequently well what is you know the
32:01
thing that most interests you every Mission we've ever been to we have always uncovered things that we could
32:07
not have imagined that is the thing that really most interests me there's going to be something there the unknown that
32:14
is going to be so wonderful that we can't conceive of it right now that's the thing that excites me most thank you
32:21
back to shé okay all right thank you Dr barate we're ready to take your questions now uh so media on the telecon
32:29
line press star one and direct your question to a panelist if you're on social media you can use the hash
32:35
asknasa and we may have some questions in the room so just uh raise your hand so we're going to start with the phone
32:41
lines uh so first we've got Eric Berger from ours Technica go ahead hi thanks very much for doing this
32:49
a couple questions first of all I think uh maybe for Jordan Evans um are you targeting the top of the launch window
32:54
on October 10th um or are there some schedule slips that may push a little bit later into the window um and second
33:03
y y'all have been very careful to say multiple times at Clipper is not a life detection Mission however what are some
33:09
things that you might observe that would be suggestive of potential life in the oceans below
33:15
thanks thank you I'll take the first one so we are absolutely targeting the first
33:21
day of the launch period October 10th it's an instantaneous launch window with each day as Armando mentioned the range
33:27
is is set for the 10th through the 12th but we are on track for the opening of the launch period on October
33:34
10th Bonnie you want to try the second yeah I mean if there is life on Europa
33:40
in this habitable environment that we're exploring it will be underneath the ocean so we wouldn't be able to see it
33:46
we're looking for chemicals on the surface organic chemicals that that are the precursors to life uh there are you
33:53
know dream things we could observe like DNA or or RNA but we don't expect to see
33:59
those so it's it really is just looking for a habitable environment and and evidence for the ingredients of life not
34:06
not life itself Armando was there anything else you wanted to add about the the opening
34:12
of the launch period no like Jordan mentioned we are tracking right on schedule a schedule
34:19
has margin to the 10th and I feel pretty confident that unless something unusual
34:25
comes up they'll be ready to launch on the beginning of of the window okay great we're going to take
34:30
another phone call and then we'll come to you in the room uh Alexandra witzy from nature magazine go
34:37
ahead yeah hi thanks for taking my call uh this is for Bonnie barate could you talk a little bit about kind of the the
34:44
Cadence of Discovery so sort of once you're at the Jupiter system and starting to do those flybys do we sort
34:50
of expect to get a lot of answers to those big questions you're looking for those big science questions un like fly
34:57
by one or is it going to take to fly by five like how quickly will we get those
35:02
you know first Glimpse at these big questions we're looking to answer yeah thanks for that question that's a great
35:07
question it's really exciting and also you know um uh I actually did my PhD thesis on the Voyager spacecraft so I've
35:14
kind of seen the way this is unfolded and it's unfolds it slowly I mean prior to Voyager we didn't even know that the
35:21
surface was weird like this so um there's going to be immediate immediate fast things we'll be able to tell right
35:28
away to confirm the discovery of Galileo whether or not there was there is a
35:33
global ocean there just by the way the spacecraft goes by if it slashes the spacecraft orbit is going to be
35:39
different than if it's a totally solid body so we will know that right away the second thing that that will uh hit us
35:45
you know is the surface uh the cameras on board Europa Clipper are far better
35:52
than the ones on uh Galileo so we'll be able to see these closeups to see
35:58
what is the surface like are there plume deposits what do these cracks really look like so I would say within the
36:03
first few flybys we'll just have a an onslaught a delug of scientific data and
36:09
then the stuff that comes later will be more looking at the details of you know how deep is the ocean uh What uh how
36:17
deep how thick is the ice crust what are the interactions between the ocean and the crust so a big delug and then adding
36:24
on to that I think will be the Cadence okay we're going to come to the room and
36:29
go ahead and introduce yourself I'm Emily loala for sky and Telescope um I have a lot of questions but I'll confine
36:36
myself to two um the first one is just a launch day question if the launch is scrubbed for weather or whatever reason
36:43
um can you do you have another launch opportunity that day or does it need to be recycled to a subsequent day and the
36:49
second question is for Bonnie um we know that there are almost certainly the
36:54
habitable environment ingredients at europic so can you be a little more specific about the uh particular
37:00
discoveries you expect to make that will help you characterize that habitable environment a little bit more okay well uh maybe we'll start with
37:08
Arondo for that reset question so yes so it's a single
37:14
opportunity per day um so if we scrub before the launch vehicle is fued
37:22
we have an opportunity the next day to attempt again if for some reason we fuel
37:28
the launch vehicle on with scrub we have to wait 48 hours for the next
37:36
opportunity okay the most important thing for determining whether there's a habitable environment and life there I
37:43
really think that would be the uh compounds at the surface the ocean is
37:49
still going to be since it's so far below the surface it's still going to be somewhat vague but we can see the
37:56
surface with the my spacecraft the infrared spectrometer for Europa will be
38:01
able to see first of all the connections between the ocean and the surface are we going to see things like uh evidence for
38:08
evaporation evaporate deposits at the surface what kinds of organic compounds are we going going to see are there
38:14
going to be the sophisticated carbon compounds that are the building blocks of light life will we see for example um
38:22
polycyclic Aro aromatic hydrocarbons uh I mean the dream thing
38:28
which we don't expect but what we see a simple amino acid those are the things that I think would be the uh the big
38:35
steps forward okay uh we're going to go back
38:40
to the phone lines uh we've got Irene clots of Aviation week got get Shar
38:46
thanks very much um I have a question for arando first which is you mentioned that there's a the launch window was
38:52
able to be extended uh about a week or so based on uh Falcon heavy performance
38:58
did SpaceX actually do something to enhance performance or was this based on
39:04
a reanalysis and uh I have a question um also uh for a a science question
39:13
thanks armanda why don't you go ahead and answer this one and we'll come back to you
39:20
Irene oh okay well let's take the science question first actually Irene
39:25
why don't you come back and ask him sorry having a little technical difficulty here deio in your opening
39:31
comments you said that this was the first indepth mission to characterize habitability and I don't mean to like um
39:39
uh pick apart your your comment but um you know that's kind of the Mantra of
39:45
the first Mars rover Curiosity Mission so I'm wondering if you might be able to
39:50
take a stab at how you look at this Europa Clipper Mission compared to
39:58
extensive life habitability questions that had been addressed in the Mars program
40:04
thanks absolutely so our our M Mars Ro Mars program is very robust as you know
40:12
and we have been searching for habitability and life for quite some time now um with Mars it is easy easier
40:20
to explore for the sense that it's closer to Earth we have groundbased observations and there's a lot of ways
40:26
to do it and I will I will turn this over to Lori in just a second so she can talk a little more about the Curiosity
40:32
Rover and the science that it's doing um but from this perspective you know Europa is so far away and all of the
40:39
other bodies are in terms of habitability that this is the first time that we really have a mission that's specifically dedicated to looking for
40:46
habitability some of the science goals of curiosity really are dedicated to that but that's not the only goal of the
40:52
mission as it is with Clipper Lori would you like to add to that sure thanks Gina
40:58
um I think it's actually a great question I I like to talk about the fact that we're kind of in a space race with ourselves when it comes to thinking
41:05
about um looking for life right we're we're we're thinking about habitable environments on Mars we're thinking
41:11
about them on Europa we're thinking about them on extrasolar planets where we're also trying to get to the point
41:16
where we're analyzing the photons directly from those exra extrasolar planets so that we can ask questions
41:22
about their habitability to me this is an exciting foundational underpin of NASA's space science program right
41:30
now is it's a so much of it is about life in the universe um on Mars we're
41:36
we're looking for ancient life um because we know the environment there was um was much more uh habitable more
41:45
liquid water around very early in in Mars history and of course it actually preserves the time in planetary
41:51
Evolution the first billion years of planetary Evolution which is very hard to explore even here on Earth we've got
41:58
that on Mars Europa the excitement is about a current habitable environment
42:03
right a current ocean there is an ocean there today so it's it's different but
42:08
very complimentary and about this foundational question of are we alone in the
42:14
universe all right thank you Dr lesen uh Armando do you want to take a stab at
42:19
that question about how the launch uh period got extended oh sure so the
42:29
the on spe got um Extended based on a combination of factors basically spaces
42:35
was able to get more performance out of their launch vehicle uh based on some
42:40
Hardware modifications that enable the launch vehicle to utilize all the fuel in the
42:48
boosters I can't get into the specifics because proprietary nature um the other
42:54
factor is this is SpaceX 11th flight of the Falcon heavy configuration they've
42:59
flown a few times already so they come up with a strategy to optimize the
43:04
throttling of the launch vehicle to get most performance out of it and the final
43:10
thing is typically uh we need ground assets to get Telemetry from the launch
43:16
vehicle and those ground assets are typically not in the most ideal locations so we have to tweak the trajectory to ensure that you're over a
43:24
ground asset before you do your Burns and for this Miss we are relying on tedras for the launch
43:30
vehicle Telemetry and that gave us a lot of additional performance as well so it's a combination of factors that
43:35
allowed us to extend it from the 30 to November 6 okay thank you Armando uh we've got
43:43
another call on the phone lines uh Marsha Dunn from the AP oh yes hi Marsha
43:49
Dunn Associated Press with a few questions um what is scientists best
43:55
guess on how deep this ocean might be and if there is or was life do
44:01
scientists believe it's microscopic could it be bigger minnow sized um just
44:07
trying to get a handle on what kind of uh thoughts are going into the life
44:12
question and lastly what happens to Clipper at missions in thank you okay yeah the first question is we
44:19
don't know exactly how deep it is that's one of the things we're uh going there to find out probably uh from the top
44:26
around 60 to 80 miles and the um type of Life there we expect again uh Europa
44:33
Clipper is not a life detection Mission but using an analogy to Earth which may be dangerous the types of life that
44:43
originated in these deep Oceanic uh vents were were primitive they're primitive uh bacteria even uh bacteria
44:50
that don't need oxygen in their metabolism so we would expect there to be if there's anything there we would
44:57
probably be primitive but again we don't know we and we probably we will not know from this Mission because we can't see
45:02
that deep so end mission disposal is planned
45:08
at ganam so once we are finished with the the science Mission and and NASA's determined that we need to properly
45:13
dispose of the vehicle so that we don't run the risk of impacting Europa at some uh future date we do a series of burns
45:21
um that that impact ganam directly and that's our our chosen disposal Target and approved by the planetary Protection
45:27
Officer of the uh of NASA great okay we're going to take another call from the phone lines uh
45:35
Bill Harwood from CBS News hey thanks very much I think this is for uh money barate um if the crust
45:42
is 60 to 80 miles thick something like that will the flybys alone pin that down
45:48
and help you nail down how thick the crust is or or or other instruments going to help you do that and how does
45:53
the the radar play uh into this I mean how deep can it penetrate theoretically
46:00
uh and and finally I'm sorry to ask three questions but finally um as you fly by in this thing slashing around and
46:05
you're measuring changes in your trajectory to to figure this the ocean scenario out I mean what are we talking
46:11
about in terms of how much this changes the trajectory I mean I think the average person would be stunned that you
46:17
can do that uh and I'm just trying to to figure out a way to kind of explain the subtleties involved in and how you come
46:23
up with you know the nature of that ocean based on the changes to the trajectory thanks yeah okay thanks so
46:29
much great question so first of all the crust itself is only I mean we're going
46:34
there to find out but it's more like 10 15 20 miles thick the ocean is is as as
46:40
you could see from the Cutaway is actually much deeper uh the ice
46:46
penetrating radar which is similar to ones we've used on the earth and also on Mars they're two instruments in orbit
46:52
around Mars now uh it has two frequencies and it is going to
46:57
uh send these long wavelength electromagnetic waves through the surface that's the trick it can see
47:02
through the surface and we we hope that it can see down to the interface between
47:08
the crust and the ocean it's it's TBD it depends on how deep it is but we hope
47:14
that it can see down that deep but it definitely can probe whether or not there are any uh little ponds or lake
47:21
type features within the crust that's not so deep so be it'll be able to see that
47:27
um let's see oh yeah the sloshing okay so our instrument we have a navigation team here that is that can really track
47:35
the position of the spacecraft within meters and in some cases within centimeters so the pull of the ocean on
47:44
that spacecraft really varies according to how how uh thick it is how dense it
47:50
is what the composition is and the navigation team will be able to track all those changes and understand the
47:56
nature of of the ocean and the instruments that will be doing that first of all there's there's a
48:01
magnetometer uh the characteristics of the ocean are also told in its magnetic
48:06
field so this induced magnet magnetic field that Europa has the magnetometer
48:11
will be tracking that and the gravity experiment on board the space there's kind of a an additional experiment which
48:18
I think I neglected to mention there's a gravity experiment that just uses the antennas to track the position of the
48:24
spacecraft and that does depend on the depth and the nature of the ocean and again the gravity experiment tracks it
48:31
to within meters and in some cases centimeters so we will be able to tell a lot about the ocean from both the
48:37
gravity experiment and the magnetometer did we get all your questions
48:43
bill yeah that's fine thank you very much all right great all right we're gonna go to social media uh we have uh
48:51
this is a question for Stuart uh Ticker on YouTube asks why not use RTG instead
48:57
of solar panels wouldn't that reduce the size of the spacecraft uh it's a great question yes
49:03
it would but uh the policy of the United United States government is to fly solar
49:08
if you're able to fly solar so originally the spacecraft back in 2014 uh did incorporate rtgs we made the
49:16
decision uh at the turn of 2014 and 2015 to translate to solar arrays it's been
49:22
interesting to watch how those solar arrays have grown over time the original concept of those arrays had three panels
49:27
you'll notice ours now have five uh but that is how we got to solar rays and I think we've made a great
49:34
decision great okay I got a question for Dr deio uh safier Jam on YouTube asks
49:41
how is the collaboration with issa's juice mission for joint observations coming
49:46
along oh that's great so juice is currently on its way to Jupiter to
49:52
explore the the icy moons there as well and with NASA we do have some contributions we've actually contributed
49:58
to a few instruments on juice right now the science teams are collaborating and
50:04
planning for further collaborations once both of the spacecraft are in orbit at Jupiter and so we look forward to the
50:10
exciting results that will come out of both of these missions as they're at Jupiter at the same time great thanks okay we're gonna come
50:17
back to the room go ahead hi Emily Lo loal again for uh Bonnie I'm wondering
50:23
um uh you know Voyager two flybys Galileo just a few this Mission will have 49 um will the longevity of the
50:31
mission enable you to do some of the things that you can have done with uh long missions on Mars things like change
50:36
detection or opportunistic observations of other moons will you be able to do those kinds of things planned in the
50:42
primary Mission um and then I have a question for Gina which is that you've mentioned that we have explored uh the
50:49
gas giants and now we're returning to one of the moons we haven't really explored the ice giants and I'm
50:55
wondering if NASA is pushing pushing forward on a Uranus or Neptune mission in the future okay start with okay yeah um all
51:03
of the above all the things you mentioned I mean we we will be able to look for change uh another thing we'll
51:08
be able to look for is active geology not just on the surface but if there any plumes there for example there are some
51:15
putative observations of plumes from the earth so we'll be looking for that and
51:20
uh okay in terms of exploring other objects we are going to be going by uh G meting clist there no plans right now uh
51:27
basically for budgetary reasons to observe these moons but if any uh past
51:33
missions are the the guide we'll probably be doing something when we're there maybe for free but we'll we we'll
51:39
look yeah Dr deia you want to address the other ones sure yeah so to to answer the
51:48
second question there first let me say even though we have explored the gas giants and and the terrestrial planets
51:53
there are still many outstanding questions about all of the planets that we would love to answer now in terms of
51:59
the ice giants the only insitu data that we have so far are from the Voyager
52:05
flybys that took place in the late 80s and so uh in our recent Teo survey the
52:11
origins worlds and life that came out that sets really the community recommendations of planetary science
52:18
over the next decade um a Uranus Orbiter probe mission was listed as one of those
52:24
high priority missions for the future now that's something that we are definitely excited about at Nasa and
52:30
something that I know the community is really pushing forward to uh there's been a lot of community workshops and it
52:36
is on our radar uh but right now our first priority is to get Clipper off the Launchpad and to
52:43
Europa okay thank you very much we're going to go back to the phone lines and we've got Nadia Drake from Scientific
52:51
American hi and thank you for taking my questions um I think early on we heard that scientists think ocean worlds like
52:58
Europa might be a common type of world outside our solar system and I'm wondering what is the scientific reing
53:06
behind that idea um have we detected another such ocean world or is this idea based on extrapolations from our own
53:12
solar system or based on modeling of exoplanetary systems where does that
53:17
idea come from I think Dr deu you brought that up in your opening remarks do you want to
53:24
take that one can we repeat that question go ahead na sure yeah I was asking about
53:31
the idea that ocean worlds like Europa might be a common type of world outside of our solar system and I'm wondering
53:39
what the scientific reasoning is for that idea how do we get there um what are the data can you walk me through
53:46
it so I actually am not the expert on that and I'm curious if Bonnie has anything to add to it yeah I think it's
53:53
basically um exoplanets the ocean worlds tend to be much more prominent in the
53:59
and also ice giants tend to be much more prominent in the exoplanets and it's basically looking at their mass and
54:05
their density which you can get from you know basic astronomical observations and using the models that we have on Earth
54:11
and extrapolating to what the Interiors look like and it turns out that a lot of these bodies are ocean worlds or ice
54:18
giants which is uh in our own solar system is Uranus and Neptune okay thank you Bonnie uh next
54:26
question is from Jim seagull of Florida media now hi everybody and thank you for uh
54:34
taking my question uh this is certainly an exciting um Mission and U I don't
54:40
mean to be a flippant about this but suppose you do find um strong
54:47
indications of conditions that would support life so what I mean what's the next step
54:55
is there a Next Step thank you J that's you yes Dr
55:03
deio well let's discuss the uh the priorities right so so right now we're
55:11
searching for whether Europa is habitable or not depending on what we see we might choose to send a mission to
55:18
go back to actually determine if Life currently exists now as I mentioned with
55:24
the way that our prior priorities are set many of these big missions are really based on the the survey the decal survey
55:31
recommendations and what the community recommendations are so once we get the results from Clipper we turn it to the
55:36
community to see if we feel like that would be a priority for the next steps so you know we we really look for input
55:42
to the greater science Community to see you know so what do we care do we want more of that data to really answer the
55:48
next questions okay thank you um we're going to go back to social media this will be
55:55
a question for Jordan uh DP Patel on Instagram asks how will you protect the
56:01
Moon from possible microbes on the spacecraft that's a great question so planetary protection is the discipline
56:07
that that um that we have that that looks at trying to ensure that we are we are protecting the moon our scientific
56:14
Target from bringing microbes with us and so all of the hardware goes through an extensive program of of uh
56:21
decontamination we'll call it um things like dry heat microbial reduction and cleaning with um hydrogen peroxide
56:28
Vapors to try to get us to a a level of cleanliness that ensures that we are
56:34
statistically protecting the moon um from from any microbes that that might have been present on board the
56:40
spacecraft so there's a lab set up at Kennedy Space Center where we're regularly taking samples of the spacecraft and trying to grow spores and
56:46
see that we are maintaining that cleanliness that we had early on uh in the development of the
56:52
hardware great thank you this is I think maybe a question for Bonnie uh cello fingers on YouTube asks is
56:59
Clipper more advanced than Cassini in its camera and spectral equipment yes it
57:05
is the uh spectrometer is um more highly resolved it's it's more flexible it has
57:10
a scanning mirror it can look over larger uh areas um resolution's better
57:17
the camera the camera is um it's actually more Innovative it has a wide
57:22
angle camera of about I think 45 Dees or two cameras a narrow and a wide angle so it's just more flexible it also has a a
57:29
gimbal that it can move so uh we'll be able to see a lot more and detect a lot more with these
57:36
instruments okay um oh we've got some more uh folks lining up on the phone lines again if you guys uh want to keep
57:44
asking questions at Star one on the telecon line all right we've got a followup from Irene clots of Aviation
57:52
week thank you I was just wondering if following the most recent um assessment
57:59
of uh the transistors from radiation exposure um concluded that there is any
58:08
greater risk uh of the transistors failing earlier than previously planned
58:16
or did the analysis just basically completely reset the clock to what it
58:21
was as far as Mission risks thanks can we take that one sure so as far as
58:28
Mission risks we determined that that flying with these transistors that that do degrade earlier than they were
58:34
originally qualified for don't present an appreciable mission risk for Europa Clipper it is low risk to fly these
58:40
transistors not only through the the uh the primary Mission but at the end of that primary Mission looking Circuit by
58:46
Circuit to ensure that we had sufficient margin in this in each of the circuits the robustness of the design allowed us
58:52
to accommodate these these transistors and ensure that we had appropriate Mar at the end of the the
58:59
mission great okay uh next call is from Leo enrite of Irish
59:08
television thanks gyri I I was really intrigued by this uh spacecraft disposal
59:15
plan at Ganon I I don't remember hearing this before so I was wondering is it new
59:22
and secondly uh obviously Europe will be putting a spacecraft in orbit around
59:29
ganam so is there a possibility uh that the juice Mission
59:34
could actually image uh an imp the impact of uh the Clipper at ganam I I
59:42
also had a a launch window question possible okay well we'll take the
59:48
disposal question first go ahead so uh so the original plan was uh to dispose
59:53
of Europa Clipper at Jupiter and I think it was about 2 years years ago that we received approval from the planetary
59:58
Protection Officer to make ganam the disposal Target it requires less fuel it's a more elegant solution at the end
1:00:04
of of mission and you a lot of things can happen between now and the end of Europa Clippers mission in terms of
1:00:09
whether juice was able to image but that would certainly be a
1:00:15
possibility go ahead with your followup Leo that's pretty exciting thanks uh
1:00:22
thanks for that information um yeah I was just wondering about late launching late in the launch window say in
1:00:30
November and this again in a way relates to juice would that to change your arrival date uh would you end up
1:00:37
arriving maybe after juice or something all of the the launch
1:00:43
opportunities that we have in this four-week period end up with the same arrival in April of 2030 so no it would
1:00:49
not change our arrival at Jupiter okay thank you uh next we have
1:00:55
another call Mara Smith uh space policy online thanks so much for taking my
1:01:01
question I'm wondering if you did decide to send a Lander based on the information that you
1:01:08
get from this Mission what do you need to know about the surface of Europa and
1:01:14
will this Mission tell you what you need to know so that you're prepared if you
1:01:20
eventually got a permission to send a l there I think Dr deio anyone to take
1:01:26
that one well I'm actually looking at Bonnie in terms of talking about you know the images that we're taking on the
1:01:31
surface and how that would inform the measurements we would want to follow up on yeah a Lander is really a question of
1:01:38
risk you have to have a surface where the spa The Landing vehicle is going to survive so you can't have for example an
1:01:45
area that has a lot of blocks or is off fluff or something like that so yes we will be able to determine those things
1:01:51
from orbit uh the camera not only the camera but the infrared spect perometer
1:01:56
the one that sees the heat will be able to look at how fluffy the surface is and the block size so yes we will be able to
1:02:02
map out Europa for appropriate Landing sites okay I'm going to take one more
1:02:09
social media question also on this idea of what if we were able to extend at
1:02:15
Chris broad on X asks NASA's uncrewed missions have a good track record of operating long past their projected
1:02:22
Mission end date so what mission objectives that are not a priority for the initial timeline are being
1:02:28
considered in the event of an extension who who wants to take that one
1:02:34
I'll jump in I'll jump in on this one and say you