with the Europa Clipper mission, America sets off this Monday to conquer Europe – Libération

Takeoff

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The NASA mission, which takes off this Monday, October 14 at 6 p.m., will arrive on Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter, in 2030, and will try to determine if its underground ocean of liquid water is habitable, that is to say to say if it can shelter forms of life.

It is an existential quest of humanity: is there extraterrestrial life? Is there any place other than Earth in the solar system where living beings teem, even if only bacteria? Is there at least one planet hospitable enough for a form of life to have thrived there in the past? Or even – because we’re really not picky – a star where life could theoretically develop? While rovers have been driving around Mars for years to answer these questions, NASA is now targeting a new playing field by launching the Europa Clipper mission to Europa, the most promising of Jupiter’s moons.

After ten years of development, Europa Clipper is finally ready. The 3.2-ton probe is installed under the fairing of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and it should have already flown into space on Thursday, October 10, if everything had gone well. as expected. But with the approach of Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida at the end of the week, the American space agency preferred to postpone the launch. Takeoff is now scheduled for this Monday, October 14 at 12:06 p.m. local time, or 6:06 p.m. in Paris.

Underground Ocean

Europa Clipper is one of the most important space missions of the d