Falcon Heavy launch vehicle (GOES-U mission)
It is expected that at 00:31 Beijing time (12:31 EDT on October 11, 2024), the Europa Clipper Jupiter probe will be lifted off by the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle at LC-39A station at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base.
The largest planetary probe ever built in the United States
The United States NASA's Europa Clipper mission will travel to Jupiter for the exploration of Jupiter's moon Europa (Europa). The mission includes three main scientific objectives to understand the nature of the ice shell of the Europa satellite and the ocean beneath it, as well as the composition and geology of the satellite. The mission's detailed exploration of the Europa satellite will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential of habitable planets beyond Earth.
"Europa Clipper" probe
The Europa Clipper mission probe is a large Jupiter probe led by the United States Space Agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Southern California, with the main body of the probe being the Johns ·Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland Laboratory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the United States Space Agency's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"Europa Clipper" probe
The main body of the "Europa Clipper" consists of three modules, the aerospace electronic equipment protective cover module (avionics vault), the radio frequency module, and the propulsion module, equipped with a high-gain antenna (HGA) with a diameter of 3 meters. The probe is 5 m (16 ft) high, has a solar wing spread span of more than 30.5 m (100 ft), is more than 28 m long of a standard basketball court, has a dry mass (unfilled propellant in the tank) of 3,241 kg (7,145 lb), an engine propellant mass of 2,752.2 kg (6,067.6 lb), and a launch mass of about 6,000 kg (13,000 lb). With huge solar wings and radar antennas, Europa Clipper became the largest planetary probe ever built in the United States.
"Europa Clipper" probe
该探测器搭载了9台科学仪器和1个使用电信通讯系统的重力实验设备。 其中，9台科学仪器分别为欧罗巴成像系统（Europa Imaging System，EIS)、欧罗巴热发射成像系统（Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System，E-THEMIS)、欧罗巴紫外光谱仪（Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph，Europa-UVS)、欧罗巴地图成像光谱仪（Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa，MISE)、欧罗巴快船磁强计（Europa Clipper Magnetometer，ECM)、磁测深等离子体仪器（Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding，PIMS)、欧罗巴评估和探测雷达：海洋到近表面（Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface，REASON)、行星探测质谱仪（MAss Spectrometer for Planetary Exploration，MASPEX)、表面粉尘分析仪（SUrface Dust Analyzer，SUDA)。
It is also equipped with radio-frequency hardware for gravity experiments.
After launch, Europa Clipper is scheduled to fly by Mars in February 2025 and then return to Earth in December 2026, using the gravitational pull of each planet to increase its momentum. With the help of these "gravity assists", the Europa Clipper will reach the speed needed to reach Jupiter in April 2030. On its way to Jupiter, the Europa Clipper will cover a distance of 2.9 billion kilometers (1.8 billion miles).
Europa Clipper will make dozens of close flights to Jupiter's moon Europa, collecting detailed measurements to study the satellite. The probe will fly over Europa 49 times at a minimum altitude of 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Europa's surface, flying over a different location each time to scan nearly the entire moon.
The Heavy Falcon is on full force mode
The "Falcon Heavy" is a large cryogenic liquid launch vehicle developed by Space Exploration Technology Corporation (SpaceX), which is based on the "Falcon 9" and bundles two core first-stage module boosters side by side, which is a two-stage and a half-stage configuration, consisting of two boosters, the core first stage, and the core second stage, and the main power is all "Merlin" series liquid oxygen kerosene engines.
Falcon Heavy launch vehicle (Falcon Heavy)
The Falcon Heavy rocket is 70 meters high, with a core stage and core stage booster diameter of 3.66 meters, a fairing diameter of 5.2 meters, a take-off mass of about 1,421 tons, a maximum take-off thrust of about 2,328 tons, and a standard geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) capacity of 26.7 tons. The rocket is a partially reusable launch vehicle, and the booster and core stage can be recycled and reused. The "Falcon Heavy" uses a new core B1090.1 and two multiplexed boosters B1064.5 and B1065.5. Due to the large speed increment required by the launch mission, all the three core modules of the take-off stage used up the propellant and were not recovered.
Since its successful maiden flight, Falcon Heavy has carried out a total of three deep space launches, and Europa Clipper will be the heaviest deep-space probe it has launched, and it will also be the first time that all three core first-stage modules have been exhausted.
This mission will be the second launch of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle and the first deep space launch in 2024. At the same time, this is also the first time that the Falcon series rockets have carried out a mission to explore and launch the Jupiter system.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou