NASA’s Europa Clipper Leverages Mars for Important Gravity Help
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 26, 2025
On March 1, NASA’s Europa Clipper will execute a detailed flyby of Mars, passing simply 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the planet’s floor. This maneuver, often known as a gravity help, will alter the spacecraft’s trajectory and put together it for a vital stage in its journey towards Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. Along with refining its path, the flyby presents a possibility for mission scientists to check the spacecraft’s radar and thermal imaging devices.
At its closest strategy to Mars at 12:57 p.m. EST, Europa Clipper can be shifting at roughly 15.2 miles per second (24.5 kilometers per second) relative to the Solar. The gravity of Mars will progressively alter the spacecraft’s trajectory over a span of 24 hours, successfully slowing it down and reshaping its photo voltaic orbit. After the encounter, Europa Clipper will depart at round 14 miles per second (22.5 kilometers per second).
This flyby is a key milestone, establishing the spacecraft for its subsequent gravity help with Earth in December 2026. That maneuver will present a further velocity increase, sending Europa Clipper on a direct course towards Jupiter, the place it’s anticipated to reach in April 2030.
“We are available very quick, and the gravity from Mars acts on the spacecraft to bend its path,” defined Brett Smith, a mission methods engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. “In the meantime, we’re exchanging a small quantity of vitality with the planet, so we go away on a path that may carry us again previous Earth.”
Using Gravity for Effectivity
Europa Clipper launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on October 14, 2024. The spacecraft is endeavor a 1.8-billion-mile (2.9-billion-kilometer) journey to Jupiter, positioned 5 occasions farther from the Solar than Earth. With out the deliberate gravity assists from Mars and Earth, the mission would both require considerably extra propellant-adding weight and cost-or take a for much longer path to its vacation spot.
NASA has lengthy relied on gravity assists to optimize house missions. The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977, used a uncommon planetary alignment to slingshot previous a number of fuel giants, capturing unprecedented knowledge alongside the way in which. JPL engineers, who oversee Europa Clipper and the Voyager missions, fastidiously calculate planetary positions and spacecraft trajectories to maximise effectivity.
“It is like a recreation of billiards across the photo voltaic system, flying by a few planets at simply the suitable angle and timing to construct up the vitality we have to get to Jupiter and Europa,” mentioned Ben Bradley, Europa Clipper mission planner at JPL. “Every part has to line up-the geometry of the photo voltaic system must be excellent to tug it off.”
Effective-Tuning the Flight Path
Mission planners initially despatched Europa Clipper on a course with a margin of security round Mars, permitting time for changes if wanted. Utilizing a collection of trajectory correction maneuvers (TCMs), engineers progressively fine-tuned its path for optimum alignment with Mars’ gravitational affect.
Three TCMs have already been executed-in early November, late January, and on February 14-to refine the spacecraft’s trajectory. Following the Mars flyby, one other TCM will happen roughly 15 days later to make sure the spacecraft stays on the right track. All through the mission, controllers might conduct as many as 200 TCMs to take care of accuracy and effectivity as Europa Clipper travels towards its remaining vacation spot.
Scientific Alternative at Mars
Past navigation, the Mars flyby supplies a possibility to check key scientific devices aboard Europa Clipper. Roughly in the future earlier than the closest strategy, the spacecraft’s thermal imager can be calibrated, capturing a multicolored picture of Mars. The processed knowledge is anticipated to be returned within the months following the encounter.
Close to closest strategy, the mission workforce may also conduct the primary full take a look at of the spacecraft’s radar system. The radar’s massive antennas and lengthy wavelengths made ground-based testing earlier than launch impractical, making this flyby a priceless alternative to confirm their operation in house.
Associated Hyperlinks
Europa Clipper
The million outer planets of a star called Sol
