BUSAN, South Korea — NASA’s science director says he is optimistic the Europa Clipper mission will launch as scheduled in October, despite concerns about the spacecraft’s electronics and launch vehicle.
The $5 billion mission is scheduled to launch aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy during a three-week period starting Oct. 10. The spacecraft will enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030 and make dozens of close passes by Europa, an icy moon with a potentially habitable subsurface ocean.
NASA announced on July 11 that it was investigating transistors on the spacecraft that may not have the level of radiation tolerance required for the mission, based on experience with similar parts used elsewhere. Jupiter’s strong magnetic field generates high doses of radiation in the form of charged particles on spacecraft in Jupiter’s vicinity, including around Europa.
“Test data obtained so far indicates that some of the transistors are likely to fail in the high radiation environment near Jupiter and its moon Europa because the components are not as radiation tolerant as expected,” NASA said in a statement. “Teams are working to determine how many transistors are susceptible and how they might perform during flight. NASA is evaluating options to maximize the transistors’ lifetime in the Jovian system.”
NASA did not provide details about the options under consideration, other than to say a preliminary analysis would be completed in late July. Industry sources say those options could include replacing the transistors, which would mean the mission would miss its October launch date.
Even more complicated is Anomaly during Falcon 9 launch late July 11 There, the vehicle’s upper stage engine failed, deploying the rocket’s payload, Starlink satellites, into a low orbit where the spacecraft could not survive. SpaceX is grounding the rocket to investigate the failure. The failure also affects the Falcon Heavy, which has a similar upper stage.
Despite the challenges, Nicky Fox, NASA’s assistant administrator for science, said she remains optimistic about the agency’s prospects for launching on time. “We’re going to push as hard as we can and we’re going to look at all options and make a decision,” she said in an interview after speaking at the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) 45.Number A scientific conference will be held here on July 16th.
She added that the decision on whether to go ahead with the launch has no deadline beyond the launch window itself: “We continue to move forward toward the Oct. 10 launch window and at some point that decision will be made for us.”
“I’m always hopeful,” she said. “The team is working hard and is very motivated.”
Mars Sample Return Status
Speaking at the COSPAR conference, Fox also touched on the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program. NASA announced in April They will explore new options for accomplishing the mission in order to reduce costs and schedules.and Research contracts were awarded to seven companies in June to consider alternative options.Efforts also include those from groups at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA centers.
“We’ve adapted. We know there are challenges,” she said of the MSR. She argued that it is limited to the “middle third” of the overall effort, which involves retrieving samples collected by the Perseverance rover and launching them into Mars orbit, where the European Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) will retrieve the samples and bring them back to Earth.
“They’re already a third of the way through the mission,” she said, referring to the samples Perseverance has already collected. “We’ve done the majority of the mission, we’ve done the very hard part of the mission.”
The final third of the mission – bringing the samples back to Earth – is “already planned,” she added. ESA is driving the development of ERO, announcing on July 5 that a critical design review of the spacecraft has been completed.
“Winning in the second quarter is what we’re all focused on,” Fox said. “We wholeheartedly welcome the challenge.”
“We’re looking at innovation. We’re looking at outside-the-box thinking,” she added. “We’re also looking deep inside the box to see if there’s something simple that we’re missing.”
Neither NASA nor the organization selected for the design study have released many details about the plan, but some appear to be focused on the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), the rocket that will launch the sample container into orbit around Mars.
In a separate presentation at COSPAR on July 15, JPL Director Laurie Lesin said her lab is looking at how to adapt the “sky crane” landing system demonstrated by the Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions for the MSR. To make that happen would require reducing the mass of the sample return lander and the MAV it carries, but if that were possible, she argued, it could significantly reduce the cost and complexity of the mission.
