Chuck Darwin<p>NASA is poised to launch <a href="https://c.im/tags/Europa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Europa</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Clipper" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Clipper</span></a>, a $5.2 billion mission to Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, as early as October 10. </p><p>The spacecraft will blast off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. </p><p>It will study Europa, a possible home for extraterrestrial life, through a series of flybys after reaching Jupiter in 2030. </p><p>Europa isn’t a craterous rock like our moon. <br>Its surface is coated with ice, and telescope and spacecraft observations suggest it harbors a colossal <a href="https://c.im/tags/liquid" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>liquid</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/ocean" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ocean</span></a> in its interior that holds 🔸twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined. <br>Europa also possesses some of <br>🔸life’s critical building blocks: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. <br>These conditions could be sufficient for life to have developed there, either in the depths of the ocean or in subsurface lakes. <br>Europa Clipper isn’t on the hunt for extraterrestrial life, however. Instead, its team hopes to assess the moon’s habitability<br>—how well it could support life. <br>The probe will use its range of scientific instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, magnetometers, and radars, to collect chemical, physical, and geological data in a series of flybys. <br>Promising results could justify a mission to land on Europa and search for life. <br>On September 9, Europa Clipper passed a milestone review called Key Decision Point E, approving it to proceed for launch. <br>After arriving in orbit around Jupiter, Europa Clipper will conduct 49 close flybys of Europa. <br>At its closest, the spacecraft will come within 16 miles (26 kilometers) of the surface for detailed observations. </p><p><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/19/1087988/nasa-europa-clipper-mission-jupiter-extraterrestrial-life/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">technologyreview.com/2024/02/1</span><span class="invisible">9/1087988/nasa-europa-clipper-mission-jupiter-extraterrestrial-life/</span></a></p>