39 minutes ago
- copy link
NASA launched the Europa Clipper mission on Monday (Oct. 14) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA launched the Europa Clipper spacecraft on Monday to search for the possibility of life on Jupiter's moon Europa. The spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon Heavy rocket of Elon Musk's company SpaceX.
This mission will last for 6 years and during this time the spacecraft will cover a distance of about 3 billion kilometers. Europa Clipper will enter Jupiter's orbit on 11 April 2030. After this, it will pass close to the Europa moon 49 times in 4 years.
According to the New York Times, scientists think that there are oceans of water beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's moon, which could make this satellite habitable. There are many solar panels installed on the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
NASA spent 43 thousand crores on the mission This is the largest spacecraft ever built by NASA to investigate another planet. Its size is bigger than a basketball court. NASA has spent Rs 43 thousand crores on this mission.
Spacecraft Europa has taken 9 instruments with it to investigate the moon. These include cameras, spectrometers, magnetometers and radar. Through these, scientists will be able to find out the depth of the ocean present on Jupiter's moon. Apart from this, they will also search for the presence of other things necessary for life on the surface of Europa. Besides, they will also check the magnetic field on the surface of the moon.
Signs of salt water were found on Europa 28 years ago In 1979, the Voyager 2 mission passed close to Jupiter. Then he took some pictures of Europa moon. In these, some pits and craters were seen on the moon, which was seen as a possibility of geological process.
In 1996, NASA's Galileo spacecraft investigated Europa's magnetic field. Then there were indications of salt water on Europa. America's Planetary Science Institute scientist Tom McCord said that planning for the Europa Clipper mission was started in 1995.
European agency also sent mission to Jupiter Earlier on April 14 last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) had launched the Juice Mission to explore the possibility of life on Jupiter's Europa moon. It will reach Jupiter in 2031. Under the Juice Mission, research will be done on the 3 main moons of Jupiter – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
So far 8 spacecraft have reached close to Jupiter. The first of these was Pioneer-10, which was sent in 1973 for research on other planets. Spacecraft Juno was launched in 2011. It has been orbiting it since 2016. Last year, Juno completed 50 orbits of Jupiter.
,
Also read this news related to space mission…
Musk's space mission successful, 4 astronauts returned to Earth: Dragon spacecraft landing in water; Speed of return was 27000 kmph, temperature was 1900 degrees
SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew returned to Earth on September 15. The Dragon spacecraft landed on Florida's Dry Tortugas Coast at 1:06 p.m. The speed of the spacecraft when entering the Earth's atmosphere was 27,000 km per hour. The collision with air created friction and the temperature reached 1,900 degrees Celsius. Read the full news…
