NASAs Europa Clipper received a high-gain antenna to enhance its communication for its 2024 objective to study Jupiters moon, Europa. Stretching 10 feet (3 meters) across the spacecrafts body, the high-gain antenna is the largest and most popular of a suite of antennas on Europa Clipper. Technicians and engineers utilize a crane to raise a 10-foot (3-meter) high-gain antenna as they prepare to install it on NASAs Europa Clipper spacecraft. Jordan Evans, the Clipper task manager at JPL, emphasized the significance of the high-gain antenna, stating, “The high-gain antenna is an important piece in the buildup of Europa Clipper. The radio frequency module consists of the spacecrafts whole telecoms subsystem and an overall of seven antennas, the high-gain amongst them.
Technicians and engineers set up Europa Clippers high-gain antenna in the primary clean space at JPL.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Once the spacecraft reaches Jupiter, the antennas radio beam will be directly directed towards Earth. Creating that narrow, focused beam is what high-gain antennas are all about. The name describes the antennas ability to focus power, allowing the spacecraft to transfer high-powered signals back to NASAs Deep Space Network on Earth. That will mean a torrent of science information at a high rate of transmission.
Installation and Testing
The precision-engineered dish was connected to the spacecraft in thoroughly choreographed phases over the course of numerous hours in a Spacecraft Assembly Facility bay at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
” The antenna has effectively completed all of its stand-alone testing,” stated Matthew Bray a couple of days before the antenna was installed. “As the spacecraft completes its last screening, radio signals will be looped back through the antenna by means of a special cap, validating that the telecom signal paths are practical.”
Based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, Bray is the designer and lead engineer for the high-gain antenna, which he began dealing with 2014. Its been rather a journey for both Bray and the antenna.
Watch as Europa Clipper staff member lift and set up the spacecrafts large, dish-shaped high-gain antenna in the primary tidy room at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Just over the previous year, hes seen the antenna crisscross the nation in the lead-up to the setup. Its capability to beam information exactly was checked two times in 2022 at NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Between those 2 check outs, the antenna made a stop at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for vibration and thermal vacuum screening to see if it might manage the shaking of launch and the extreme temperatures of deep space.
Then it was on to JPL in October 2022 for installation on the spacecraft in preparation for shipment next year to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The long journey to Jupiter starts with launch from Kennedy in October 2024.
Technicians and engineers utilize a crane to raise a 10-foot (3-meter) high-gain antenna as they prepare to install it on NASAs Europa Clipper spacecraft. The orbiter is being put together in the tidy space of High Bay 1 at JPL in preparation for its October 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Europa in Their Sights
Jordan Evans, the Clipper task supervisor at JPL, stressed the importance of the high-gain antenna, mentioning, “The high-gain antenna is a crucial piece in the accumulation of Europa Clipper. It represents a really visible piece of hardware that supplies the ability that the spacecraft requires to send out the science data back from Europa. Not just does it look like a spacecraft now that it has the huge antenna, however its ready for its upcoming crucial tests as we progress towards launch.”
The spacecraft will train nine science instruments on Europa, all producing large amounts of abundant information: high-resolution color and stereo images to study its geology and surface area; thermal images in infrared light to discover warmer locations where water could be near the surface; shown infrared light to map salts, organics, and ices; and ultraviolet light readings to help determine the makeup of atmospheric gases and surface area products.
Clipper will bounce ice-penetrating radar off the subsurface ocean to identify its depth, as well as the density of the ice crust above it. A magnetometer will determine the moons magnetic field to verify the deep oceans presence and the density of the ice.
The high-gain antenna will stream the majority of that data back to Earth throughout 33 to 52 minutes. The strength of the signal and the quantity of information it can send at one time will be far greater than that of NASAs Galileo probe, which ended its eight-year Jupiter mission in 2003.
On website at JPL for the antenna setup was Simmie Berman, the radio frequency module manager at APL. Like Bray, she started her work on the antenna in 2014. The radio frequency module includes the spacecrafts whole telecoms subsystem and a total of seven antennas, the high-gain amongst them. Her task throughout setup was to ensure the antenna was properly mounted to the spacecraft and that the parts are correctly oriented and well integrated.
While the engineers at both APL and JPL have practiced the installation sometimes, essentially and with real-world mock-ups, August 14 was the very first time the high-gain antenna was connected to the spacecraft.
“Little kids know where Jupiter is. They understand what Europa looks like.
With this significant step total, Europa Clipper awaits a few more phases of preparation for its upcoming trip to the external solar system.
More About the Mission
Europa Clippers main science goal is to determine whether there are places below Jupiters icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The missions 3 principal science goals are to figure out the thickness of the moons icy shell and its surface area interactions with the ocean below, to examine its composition, and to define its geology. The objectives detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists much better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
NASAs Europa Clipper got a high-gain antenna to improve its interaction for its 2024 objective to study Jupiters moon, Europa. With advanced instruments, the spacecraft intends to offer a deeper understanding of the moons prospective subsurface ocean and environment. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The addition of a high-gain antenna will allow the agencys Europa Clipper spacecraft– set to release in October 2024– to interact with objective controllers hundreds of countless miles away.
NASAs Europa Clipper is designed to look for conditions ideal for life on an ice-covered moon of Jupiter. On August 14, the spacecraft received a piece of hardware main to that quest: the enormous dish-shaped high-gain antenna.
Antenna Features and Functions
Stretching 10 feet (3 meters) throughout the spacecrafts body, the high-gain antenna is the biggest and most popular of a suite of antennas on Europa Clipper. The spacecraft will require it as it investigates the ice-cloaked moon that its called after, Europa, some 444 million miles (715 million kilometers) from Earth. A major mission goal is to get more information about the moons subsurface ocean, which might harbor a habitable environment.
