NASA的欧罗巴快船在佛罗里达州开箱
Technicians inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepare to rotate the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, to a vertical position on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, as part of prelaunch processing.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Crews rotated to vertical then lifted NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from its protective shipping container after it arrived at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 28.
The spacecraft, which will collect data to help scientists determine if Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could support life, arrived in a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane at Kennedy’s Launch and Landing Facility on May 23. The hardware traveled more than 2,500 miles from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Southern California where it was assembled. The team transported Europa Clipper to the PHSF and will perform a number of activities to prepare it for launch, including attaching the high gain antenna, affixing solar arrays to power the spacecraft, and loading propellants that will help guide the spacecraft to its destination.
On board are nine science instruments to gather detailed measurements while Europa Clipper performs approximately 50 close flybys of the Jovian moon. Research suggests an ocean twice the volume of all the Earth’s oceans exists under Europa’s icy crust.
The Europa Clipper spacecraft will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. The launch period opens Thursday, Oct. 10.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
作为发射前处理的一部分，NASA佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心有效载荷危险服务设施内的技术人员准备于2024年5月28日星期二将该机构最大的行星任务航天器欧罗巴快船旋转到垂直位置。
影像来源: NASA/Kim Shiflett
5月28日，NASA的欧罗巴快船航天器抵达位于佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心的有效载荷危险服务设施（PHSF）后，工作人员将其旋转至垂直位置，然后将其从保护性集装箱中吊起。
该航天器将收集数据，帮助科学家确定木星冰冷的卫星木卫二（Europa）是否可能存在生命。5月23日，该航天器搭乘美国空军C-17环球大师III（Globemaster III）货机抵达肯尼迪的发射与着陆设施。该硬件从NASA位于南加州的喷气推进实验室出发，经过2,500多英里的运输，该团队将欧罗巴快船运送到PHSF，并将执行多项活动以准备其发射，包括安装高增益天线，安装太阳能电池阵列为航天器供电，以及装载推进剂，帮助航天器抵达目的地。
航天器上装载了九种科学仪器，以在欧罗巴快船执行大约50次近距离飞掠木星时收集详细测量数据。研究表明，在木卫二的冰壳下存在着两倍于地球海洋体积的海洋。
欧罗巴快船将使用SpaceX的猎鹰重型火箭从NASA肯尼迪发射中心39A发射复合体发射升空。发射窗口将在10月10日星期四开启。
该任务由位于加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳的加州理工学院管理，NASA喷气推进实验室与位于马里兰州劳雷尔的约翰霍普金斯应用物理实验室（APL）合作，为位于华盛顿的NASA科学任务指挥部领导欧罗巴探测器任务的开发。主要的航天器体由APL与喷气推进实验室和位于马里兰州格林贝尔特的NASA戈达德太空飞行中心合作设计。该行星任务计划办公室位于阿拉巴马州亨茨维尔的NASA马歇尔太空飞行中心，执行欧罗巴探测器任务的项目管理。
NASA喷气推进实验室由加州帕萨迪纳的加州理工学院管理，与马里兰州劳雷尔的约翰霍普金斯应用物理实验室合作，领导欧罗巴快船任务的发展，为华盛顿的NASA科学任务理事会服务。航天器主体由APL与JPL和位于马里兰州格林贝尔特的NASA戈达德太空飞行中心合作设计。位于阿拉巴马州亨茨维尔NASA马歇尔太空飞行中心的行星任务计划办公室负责欧罗巴快船任务的项目管理。
位于肯尼迪的NASA发射服务项目负责管理欧罗巴快船的发射服务。