Speaker 1: Welcome to Bedtime Astronomy. Explore the wonders of the cosmos
Speaker 1: with our soothing Bedtime Astronomy podcast. Each episode offers a
Speaker 1: gentle journey through the stars, planets, and beyond. Perfect for
Speaker 1: unwinding after a long day. Let's travel through the mysteries
Speaker 1: of the universe as you drift off into a peaceful
Speaker 1: slumber under the night sky. Europa Clipper pre launch overview
Speaker 1: the first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world
Speaker 1: beyond Earth. Europa Clipper aims to find out whether the
Speaker 1: ice incased Moon Europa could be habitable. NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft,
Speaker 1: the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary mission,
Speaker 1: will travel one point eight billion miles two point nine
Speaker 1: billion kilometers from the agency's Kennedy Space Center and Florida
Speaker 1: to Europa, an intriguing icy moon of Jupiter. The spacecraft's
Speaker 1: launch period opens Thursday, October tenth. Data from previous NASA
Speaker 1: missions has provided scientists with strong evidence that an enormous
Speaker 1: salty ocean lies underneath the frozen surface of the Moon.
Speaker 1: Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and conduct forty nine close
Speaker 1: flybys of the Moon to gather data needed to determine
Speaker 1: whether there are places below its thick frozen crust that
Speaker 1: could support life. Europa is one of the most promising
Speaker 1: places to look for currently habitable conditions beyond Earth. There's
Speaker 1: scientific evidence that the ingredients for life, water, the right chemistry,
Speaker 1: and energy may exist on Europa right now. This mission
Speaker 1: will gather the information scientists need to find out for sure.
Speaker 1: The Moon may hold an internal ocean with twice the
Speaker 1: water of Earth's oceans combined, and it may also host
Speaker 1: organic compounds and energy sources under its surface. If the
Speaker 1: mission determines that Europa is habitable, it would mean there
Speaker 1: may be more habitable worlds in our Solar system and
Speaker 1: beyond than we have imagined. The spacecraft will fly through
Speaker 1: one of the most punishing radiation environments in our solar system,
Speaker 1: second only to the Sun's. Jupiter is surrounded by a
Speaker 1: gigantic magnetic field twenty thousand times stronger than Earth's. As
Speaker 1: the field spins, it captures and accelerates charged particles, creating
Speaker 1: radiation that can damage spacecraft. Mission engineers designed a spacecraft
Speaker 1: fault to shield sensitive electronics from radiation, and they plot
Speaker 1: it orbits that will will limit the time Europa Clipper
Speaker 1: spends in most radiation heavy areas around Jupiter. Europa Clipper
Speaker 1: will orbit Jupiter studying Europa while flying by the Moon
Speaker 1: dozens of times. The spacecraft will make looping orbits around
Speaker 1: Jupiter that bring it close to Europa for forty nine
Speaker 1: science dedicated flybys. On each orbit, the spacecraft will spend
Speaker 1: less than a day in Jupiter's dangerous radiation zone near
Speaker 1: Europa before zipping back out. Two to three weeks later,
Speaker 1: it will repeat the process making another flyby. Europa Clipper
Speaker 1: features NASA's most sophisticated suite of science instruments yet. To
Speaker 1: determine whether Europa is habitable, Europa Clipper must assess the
Speaker 1: Moon's interior, composition and geology. The spacecraft carries nine science
Speaker 1: instruments and a gravity experiment that uses the telecommunication system
Speaker 1: in order to obtain the best science during each flyby.
Speaker 1: All the science instruments will operate simultaneously on every pass.
Speaker 1: Scientists will then layer the data together to paint a
Speaker 1: full picture of the Moon with antennas and solar arrays
Speaker 1: fully deployed. Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has
Speaker 1: ever developed. For a planetary mission. The spacecraft extends one
Speaker 1: hundred feet thirty point five meters from one end to
Speaker 1: the other in about fifty eight feet seventeen point six
Speaker 1: meters across. That's bigger than a basketball court, thanks in
Speaker 1: large part to the solar arrays, which need to be
Speaker 1: huge so they can collect enough sunlight while near Jupiter
Speaker 1: to power the instruments, electronics, and other subsystems. Jupiter is,
Speaker 1: on average some four hundred and eighty million miles about
Speaker 1: seven hundred and seventy million kilometers from Earth. Both planets
Speaker 1: are in motion, and a spacecraft can carry only a
Speaker 1: limited amount of fuel. Mission planners are sending Europa Clipper
Speaker 1: past Mars and then Earth, using the planet's gravity as
Speaker 1: a slingshot to add speed to the spacecraft's track. After
Speaker 1: journeying about one point eight billion miles two point nine
Speaker 1: billion kilometers over five point five years, the spacecraft will
Speaker 1: fire its engines to enter orbit around Jupiter in twenty
Speaker 1: thirty institutions across the U dot S in Europe have
Speaker 1: contributed to Europa Clipper. Currently, one thousand people work on
Speaker 1: the mission, including more than two hundred and twenty scientists
Speaker 1: from both the Udads and Europe. Since the mission was
Speaker 1: officially approved in twenty fifteen, more than four thousand people
Speaker 1: have contributed to Europa Clipper, including teams who work for
Speaker 1: contractors and subcontractors. More than two point six million of
Speaker 1: US are riding along with the spacecraft, bringing greetings from
Speaker 1: one water world to another, as part of a mission
Speaker 1: campaign called Message in a Bottle. The spacecraft is carrying
Speaker 1: a poem by Eudades poet laureate adaly mone Co, signed
Speaker 1: by millions of people from nearly every country in the world.
Speaker 1: Their names have been stenciled onto a microchip attached to
Speaker 1: a tannel metal plate that seals the spacecraft's electronics fault.
Speaker 1: The plate also features waveforms of people saying the word
Speaker 1: water in over one hundred spoken languages. Europa Clipper's three
Speaker 1: main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the
Speaker 1: Moon's icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below,
Speaker 1: to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The
Speaker 1: mission's detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand
Speaker 1: the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planets. To
Speaker 1: do the same