NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission: Sending a Message to Jupiter’s Moon
In a continuation of NASA’s long-standing tradition of sending inspirational messages into space, the agency has unveiled special plans for its upcoming Europa Clipper mission. Set to launch later this year towards Jupiter’s moon Europa, the mission aims to explore the moon’s potential for hosting extraterrestrial life. Europa has long fascinated scientists due to its strong evidence of an ocean beneath its icy crust, containing more than twice the amount of water found in all of Earth’s oceans combined.
To honor the connection between Earth and Europa, the spacecraft will carry a triangular metal plate with various symbolic engravings. At the heart of the artifact is an engraving of U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten poem titled “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” This poetic tribute will be accompanied by a silicon microchip stenciled with over 2.6 million names submitted by the public. The microchip, resembling a message in a bottle, serves as a representation of NASA’s “Message in a Bottle” campaign, which invited the public to send their names along with the spacecraft.
Dubbed a “Golden Record” for Europa, the metal plate measures approximately 7 by 11 inches and is made of tantalum. It features graphic elements on both sides, with the outward-facing panel highlighting Earth’s connection to Europa. Linguists collected recordings of the word “water” spoken in 103 languages, representing various language families from around the world. These audio files were then converted into waveforms and etched into the plate, radiating out from a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for “water.”
Inspired by the Voyager spacecraft’s Golden Record, which carries sounds and images representing life on Earth, the layered message on Europa Clipper aims to ignite the imagination and offer a unifying vision. Lori Glaze, the director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters, describes the vault plate as a combination of humanity’s best across the universe – science, technology, education, art, and math. The message of connection through water, essential for all forms of life, perfectly illustrates Earth’s tie to this mysterious ocean world.
Europa Clipper is scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2030 after a 1.6-billion-mile journey. Once in orbit around Jupiter, the spacecraft will conduct 49 close flybys of Europa to gather data about its subsurface ocean, icy crust, thin atmosphere, and space environment. The mission’s primary objective is to determine if Europa has conditions that could support life. To symbolize this focus on habitable conditions, the Drake Equation, developed by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961 to estimate the possibility of finding advanced civilizations beyond Earth, is etched onto the inward-facing side of the plate.
Additionally, the inward-facing side of the plate features artwork referencing radio frequencies used for interstellar communication. These frequencies, known as the “water hole,” match the radio waves emitted by water components in space. The plate also includes a portrait of Ron Greeley, one of the founders of planetary science, whose early efforts to develop a Europa mission laid the foundation for Europa Clipper.
The assembly of Europa Clipper will take place at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California before being transported to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its scheduled launch in October. Once launched, this ambitious mission will provide invaluable insights into Europa’s potential for hosting life and further our understanding of habitable worlds beyond Earth.
For more information about Europa Clipper and its mission objectives, visit europa.nasa.gov.