This May , technologist working on NASA ’s Europa Clipper had to return the kind of news that no one wants to annunciate : There was a problem with the junction transistor on their space vehicle . Europa Clipper is head up to themoon of the same name , which orbits around Jupiter — and that gargantuan satellite has an acute environment of radiation around it that is hostile to electronics . Engineers were concerned that some of the transistors may be damaged by that radiation , potentially foreshorten the life of the spacecraft .
Engineers toldThe New York Timesof reacting to the issue with a “ howl of terror . ” They worked on the problemthroughout the summer , scrambling to figure out how many transistors would be affected and what wallop that could have on the spacecraft and its commission . With launching engagement cursorily approaching , they had only a short window to work in .
Now , though , the team is convinced that the spacecraft can function as intended . The transistor can be healed by heating them up , using a physical process called annealing that rearranges the speck in the transistor and keeps it figure out . It ’s not a solution perpetually , but it should work out long enough for the spacecraft to carry out its four - year mission .
In a intelligence group discussion this week , NASA officials allege they were ready for launching next calendar month and described all of the testing and preparation piece of work they had done in advance of the launch appointment .
“ There ’s been wide testing at JPL [ NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ] , at APU [ Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory ] , and also at NASA Goddard , ” said Jordan Evans , the Europa Clipper project managing director at JPL . “ We ’ve taken Europa Clipper into a vacuity bedroom to sham the cold vacuum of outer space to ensure the ballistic capsule can maintain temperatures and function over the red-hot and cold destiny of the delegation . We did trembling and acoustic testing to shake the spacecraft like it will receive on the Falcon Heavy garden rocket and blasted it with the skyrocket noise that it ’ll know inside the Falcon Heavy fairing . We test the ironware and software together , and organisation test tricking Europa Clipper into think that it ’s flying from launch all the way through flybys or Europa . ”
The team even simulated problem like displume out telegram to see if the ballistic capsule ’s fault spying systems make for , and examine the electronics on plug-in by simulating the electromagnetic surround of Jupiter .
The bearing is to set up Europa Clipper from NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a window that opens on October 10 . Now , last work is underway , including optimizing the ballistic capsule ’s flight , execute terminal processing of the space travel ironware , and net refurbishing of the boosters .
