Can you hear me now?
NASA plans to launch a Message in a Bottle to Jupiter later this year as part of its quest to discover extraterrestrial life on the gas giant’s moon.
The agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will blast off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Station in October toward Jupiter’s moon Europa, sending a steady stream into the ether of 2.6 million sound waves that humans call their names.
“The contents and design of Europa Clipper’s safeboard are imbued with meaning,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. said in a statement.
Europa Clipper will take almost six years to travel 6 billion miles to Jupiter’s moons, with an estimated arrival time of April 2030.
The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and make 49 approaches to Europa, showing strong evidence that it lies beneath an icy crust more than twice the combined volume of Earth’s oceans.
The spacecraft’s mission is to determine whether there are conditions for life beneath the moon’s icy surface, and to “help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential of habitable worlds beyond Earth.” “It is useful to do.”
As Europa Clipper orbits Earth, it sends out “highly layered transmissions” of millions of names.
The sentimental aspect of this mission goes beyond the touching details. A handwritten message from U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon will also be etched into the spacecraft.Mystery Praise: Poem to Europa”, as well as a portrait of Ron Greeley, one of the founders of planetary science, and references to radio frequencies considered plausible for interstellar communication.
The spacecraft’s triangular plate is also engraved with the Drake Equation, a 1961 mathematical formula created to estimate the likelihood of discovering advanced civilizations beyond Earth.
Additionally, as a symbol of the connection between the two ‘water planets’, the Europa Clipper has etched waveforms of the word ‘water’ in 104 languages.
“This plate combines the best that humanity has to offer across the universe: science, technology, education, art, and mathematics. “The message of connection perfectly illustrates the connection between Earth and this mysterious ocean world that we seek to explore,” Glaze said.
The mission adheres to NASA’s storied tradition of sending inspirational messages into space, but includes sounds and images specifically selected to depict the diversity of life and culture on Earth in 1977. It is modeled after the Voyager spacecraft’s Golden Record, which released two identical phonograph records. A space where intelligent aliens can be found.
But that mission is still far away.
Europa Clipper’s 46.5-foot-long solar array arrived at Kennedy Space Center last week and is currently being inspected, cleaned and tested.
The remaining spacecraft will be delivered to the space station later this year.
