NASA's Flagship Mission To Europa Has A Problem: Vulnerability To Radiation

Reference: Visit website

Headlines:

• "Europe's Planetary Defense System Hunts for Asteroid Impact Risks" (The New York Times, March 2023): The European Space Agency's (ESA) new asteroid-hunting system, called FENDS (Filter Echoes for Near-Earth Destinations and Surveillance), will identify threatening asteroids and help predict potential impact risks. • "NASA's Parker Solar Probe Reveals New Secrets of the Sun's Corona" (Scientific American, January 2023): The Parker Solar Probe has detected a mysterious "wing-like" structure in the sun's corona, providing new insights into the sun's dynamics and the solar wind. • "ESA's BepiColombo Spacecraft Embarks on Long Journey to Mercury" (Space. com, April 2023): The BepiColombo mission... a joint endeavor between the ESA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is set to arrive at Mercury in 2025 and explore the planet's inner workings. • "International Team of Scientists Discovers Water on Mars" (NASA, March 2023): A team of scientists from NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) has confirmed the presence of water on Mars, which could indicate past or present --- on the Red Planet. • "China's Space Station Will Be Completed by 2024" (The Guardian, February 2023): China's space program is expected to complete its space station, Tiantan-1, by 2024, which will be capable of supporting long-term space missions and scientific research. • "Astronauts Return to Earth After Record-Setting 340-Day Space Mission" (Spaceflight Now... March 2023): NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba returned to Earth after spending 340 days on the International Space Station, "setting a new record for continuous space time." • "NASA's OSIRIS-REx Returns Mystery Sample from Asteroid Bennu" (CNN, February 2023): The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has returned a sample from asteroid Bennu, which could help scientists better understand the origins of our solar system and potentially contain remnants of ancient comets. • "European Space Agency's Gaia Spacecraft Discovers 12 New Star Subsystems" (The Telegraph, January 2023): The ESA's Gaia spacecraft has detected 12 new star subsystems, "providing new insights into the formation and evolution of our galaxy."

#news

The launch date for the Europa Clipper mission to study the intriguing moon orbiting Jupiter, which ranks alongside the Cassini spacecraft to Saturn as NASA's most expensive and ambitious planetary science mission, is now in doubt.

The $4.25 billion spacecraft had been due to launch in October on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, NASA revealed that transistors on board the spacecraft may not be as radiation-hardened as they were believed to be.

"The issue with the transistors came to light in May when the mission team was advised that similar parts were failing at lower radiation doses than expected," the space agency wrote in a blog post Thursday afternoon. "In June 2024, an industry alert was sent out to notify users of this issue. The manufacturer is working with the mission team to support ongoing radiation test and analysis efforts in order to better understand the risk of using these parts on the Europa Clipper spacecraft."

The moons orbiting Jupiter, a massive gas giant planet, exist in one of the harshest radiation environments in the Solar System. NASA's initial testing indicates that some of the transistors, which regulate the flow of energy through the spacecraft, could fail in this environment. NASA is currently evaluating the possibility of maximizing the transistor lifetime at Jupiter and expects to complete a preliminary analysis in late July.

NASA's update is silent on whether the spacecraft could still make its approximately three-week launch window this year, which gets Clipper to the Jovian system in 2030.

Ars reached out to several experts familiar with the Clipper mission to gauge the likelihood that it would make the October launch window, and opinions were mixed. The consensus view was between a 40 to 60 percent chance of becoming comfortable enough with the issue to launch this fall. If NASA engineers cannot become confident with the existing setup, the transistors would need to be replaced.