NASA has unveiled the largest spacecraft the U.S. agency has ever built for a planetary mission. The Europa Clipper is set to launch in October with the goal of finding conditions that could sustain life on one of dozens of moons orbiting Jupiter.
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00 Sealed in a clean room in California, NASA's new $5 billion U.S. space probe called Europa
00:09 Clipper. It's the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission and
00:15 is due to launch in October with the goal of finding conditions that could sustain life
00:19 here. Europa, one of dozens of moons orbiting Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.
00:27 We have a five and a half year trajectory that goes from Kennedy in Florida to Jupiter.
00:32 Once we arrive it's about six months to get into a harmonious orbit with Europa and then
00:37 four years for our primary science mission. So ten years of flight once we launch.
00:41 NASA expects Clipper to reach Europa's orbit by 2031. It will then study a moon that has
00:48 tantalized scientists for decades. Since the 1970s, they have suspected its icy outer shell
00:55 hid a liquid water ocean beneath. Today, scientists say Europa could have double the amount of
01:01 water of all of Earth's oceans. And the moon is one of the most promising places in the
01:07 solar system to look for extraterrestrial life.
01:11 One of the fundamental questions that NASA wants to understand is are we alone in the
01:20 cosmos? If we were to find the conditions for life then that would say, hey in our own
01:27 solar system there are two examples of life, Earth and Europa.
01:32 NASA says that if life could form in two places in our solar system, then it's likely to exist
01:38 across our galaxy and beyond. But this latest probe doesn't have the tools to test for life
01:45 itself on Europa. And project leaders say that's not the goal of the mission. This mission
01:51 is focused on finding out whether Europa could sustain life.
01:57 There won't be any little green men floating in Europa's oceans. But the discovery of anything
02:03 living there at all would open a whole new chapter in space exploration.
02:08 John Su and Joyce Sun for Taiwan Plus.
02:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]