{"id":1190902,"date":"2023-10-10T20:28:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T00:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1190902"},"modified":"2023-10-10T20:28:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T00:28:41","slug":"a-year-from-launch-the-europa-clipper-spacecraft-nears-finish-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1190902","title":{"rendered":"A year from launch, the Europa Clipper spacecraft nears finish line"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"rss-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PIA25958large-800x533-1.jpg\" alt=\"One of the final components added to the Europa Clipper spacecraft was the high-gain antenna, seen here during installation in August.\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"font-size:0.8em\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PIA25958large.jpg\" class=\"enlarge-link\" data-height=\"1280\" data-width=\"1920\">Enlarge<\/a> <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> One of the final components added to the Europa Clipper spacecraft was the high-gain antenna, seen here during installation in August. (credit: <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"caption-link\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nasa.gov\/details\/PIA25958\">NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div><a name=\"page-1\" \/><\/div>\n<p>KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.\u2014The launch window for one of the most expensive robotic space missions in NASA&#8217;s history opens one year from Tuesday. Coming in at $5 billion, Europa Clipper will try to help scientists answer a bold question commensurate with its eye-popping cost: Are there places below the surface of Jupiter\u2019s icy moon, Europa, that could support life?<\/p>\n<p>Europa is slightly smaller than Earth&#8217;s Moon, and is significantly more interesting to scientists searching for life. The icy world harbors a vast global ocean of liquid water underneath a frozen crust. Clipper will sail past Europa nearly 50 times, coming as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) from its icy surface to interrogate the moon with a sophisticated suite of nine instruments.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan Evans, who leads the team developing Europa Clipper at NASA&#8217;s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told Ars on Tuesday the mission is on track to depart for Jupiter during a 21-day planetary launch window opening on October 10, 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1975039#p3\">Read 29 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1975039&amp;comments=1\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource: Ars Technica &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1975039\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A year from launch, the Europa Clipper spacecraft nears finish line<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enlarge \/ One of the final components added to the Europa Clipper spacecraft was the high-gain antenna, seen here during installation in August. (credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech) KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.\u2014The launch window for one of the most expensive robotic space missions &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1190902\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1190903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1190902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1190902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1190903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1190902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1190902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1190902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}