Europa Clipper
One of the latest projects NASA is working on is the Europa Clipper, a mission set on discovering whether one of Jupiter's icy moons is suitable for life and could contain life. NASA will send a spacecraft into orbit to conduct a detailed investigation by doing multiple flybys of the moon.
The engineers for this project had to create a satellite that would have multiple instruments which includes cameras, spectrometers, radars, and magnetometers. These instruments have to be powerful enough to reach the surface of Jupiter's moon and even penetrate it. The radars on this satellite will have to be able to measure the thickness of the moons ice sheet and search for subsurface lakes on the moon. Being able to fit all of this technology on the satellite is very important in the search of life on the moon.
Evidence of subsurface oceans and lakes containing water plumes may be evidence enough that there is life on the moon and may even prove that Europa has the potential to habitat life, which is a very interesting topic due to our current destruction of our own earth.
This NASA is similar to our JPL project because there is an end goal and steps we must take in order to reach that goal. Also we have many ideas that involve us adding instruments like funnels and lasers to align the ball more, allowing it to be more accurate. My team is working well and working hard in creating the perfect machine. We have divided the tasks and completed most of the work. Anyone who is struggling with their task can be assisted by anyone who finished their work. In this way we have a very functional team.
Comments