The Europa Clipper could provide scientists with “definitive scientific evidence of the potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet”.
After postponing the launch of the Europa Clipper due to Hurricane Milton, NASA and SpaceX are preparing to launch the space mission on Monday, the 14th.
The Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the Europa Clipper will take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, and you can watch the launch live on the US space agency’s YouTube channel (below). The broadcast will begin at 4:00 p.m. and liftoff is scheduled for shortly after 5:00 p.m. (Lisbon time).
Europa Clipper’s goal is to study Europa (one of Jupiter’s largest moons) in more detail, with the probe due to arrive in 2030. The mission, which is estimated to have cost around €4.57 billion, aims to learn more about Europa’s surface and how, millions of years ago, it may have had the conditions to support the emergence of life.
“If you think of all the water here on Earth and then double it, that’s how much water we think could exist on Europa,” Caroline Harper, head of space science at the UK Space Agency, told The Guardian. “Water is essential to life as we know it, and if we want to find life elsewhere in the Solar System, it’s very likely to be on an icy moon like this. The Europa Clipper mission will seek to find out whether Europa is a habitable place that could support life in the huge ocean beneath its icy surface.”
“It’s exciting to think that within the next decade we could have definitive scientific evidence of the potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet,” Harper said.
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