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NASA's Europa Clipper mission to study Jupiter's moon habitability

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Published  October 14, 2024 7:40pm EDT
Brevard County
FOX 35 Orlando

Watch: Europa Clipper headed to Jupiter

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft launched Monday from Florida towards Jupiter, a 5 1/2-year journey to investigate whether life is possibly near Jupiter's moon, Europa.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - NASA is on its way to Jupiter. Aside from Earth, experts think one of Jupiter’s moons is the most promising place for humans to live in outer space. 

At 12:06 p.m. on Monday, the Europa Clipper mission took off from Kennedy Space Center at Launch Complex 39A. The mission was delayed a few days because of Hurricane Milton. 

NASA’s goal is to see if life can be supported on one of Jupiter’s moons.

The Falcon Heavy rocket carried the largest spacecraft NASA’s ever made to visit a planet. 

"Europa Clipper is powered by massive solar arrays – these things are huge. They go diagonally from one end to the other of a basketball court," said Dr. Jamie Porter, a Radiation Lead for the mission. 

The spacecraft is huge, and the mission is long. Jupiter’s moon, Europa, is 1.8 billion miles from Earth.

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Dr. Gerald Patterson, a planetary geologist, says it will be a "six-year-long journey to Europa to explore this unique ocean world and try to understand its habitability."

Nine different instruments will study the moon's surface to see if it has ingredients to support human life like an energy source and chemical building blocks. 

NASA will also investigate an ocean beneath Europa’s surface. 

Scientists believe it has twice as much water as the oceans here on Earth.

"That ocean is more than 100 kilometers deep, much deeper than anything here on earth," said Patterson. "It’s completely covered by an ice shelf that’s tens of kilometers thick."

The satellite will not reach Jupiter’s orbit until 2030.

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