This is a guest post by Sheri Wells-Jensen, Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation at the Kluge Center. Wells-Jensen is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. A linguist with research interests in phonetics, braille, language creation, and disability studies, her early work on the potential for non-physically mediated language acquisition (by AI or other non-human beings) led to an ongoing interest in ethical issues related to space exploration, as well as disability issues in space travel. Her current research centers on increasing access for people with disabilities in space.
In October 2024, a 229-foot-tall Falcon Heavy Rocket will fling NASA’s largest-ever planetary probe into space. At launch, with its belly full of fuel, the Europa Clipper will weigh in at 13,000 pounds. It stands 16 feet tall, and when its solar panels are unfurled, it will be more than 100 feet wide!
This big fellow will zoom through 1.8 billion miles of open space and drop neatly into orbit around Jupiter in April, 2030. From there, it will spend some time adjusting its position and then begin systematic observations of Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon.
Europa is a mystery. Its surface is covered with ice — beneath which, we believe, is an immense ocean, and it is that hidden ocean that calls to us.
The Europa Clipper will conduct a series of observations and analyses as it passes by. It will gaze at Europa using visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light, measure its magnetic field, sniff at its chemicals, tap it with radar, and reach out to sense slight changes in its gravity as it spins through space. All of this is designed to answer one simple question: Could this icy little moon support life? Are the conditions right?
This may be a straightforward scientific question, but the Europa Clipper carries more than straightforward scientific instruments.
On one side of the probe, there is a little hatch.