Tag Archives: europa-clipper

JPL chief Laurie Leshin on science, Mars and budget infighting – SpaceNews

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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is home base for building pioneering spacecraft that have probed every planet in our solar system, including the Sun.

Federally funded by NASA and managed by Caltech, JPL and its cadre of engineers and scientists are led by Laurie Leshin, the first woman to serve as JPL director, who took on the role in May 2022 following a career as a geochemist in academia and NASA.

Leshin points to space technology achievements, but has also been plagued by program setbacks and space budget woes, especially regarding the JPL-led Mars Sample Return project.

Leshin spoke with SpaceNews about JPLs path forward and steps to retain and bolster the revered laboratorys capabilities.

How do you characterize your concerns about NASAs overall budget and its impact on JPL?

There is good news for sure, such as the VERITAS Venus orbiter coming back and that were now re-planning and ramping back up. Most of the [NASA] science budget is fairly flat which, while not great, is not terrible. Planetary science, however, finds itself in a very, very difficult position. It is a fairly unprecedented threat to the nations deep space capability which is resident at JPL, so I have major concerns.

How impactful were Februarys budget-related layoffs on the labs future?

We hire only great people. So we will miss all those who were laid off. Were supporting them in every way we can think of through their transition. While it cut to depth, it did not eliminate any core capability. We worked very hard in spite of having to make the deep cuts and to make sure those capabilities were intact.

What is an example of a core capability at JPL?

Our nations Mars exploration capability is resident at the lab. No other organization has landed on Mars in the United States except us with partners always, but we have led every one of those missions. But if the budget challenges continue or decisions continue to be deferred, those capabilities will be at risk. I dont know how to say it other than that.

Our job as a nation is to have some hard conversations about what being spacefaring for the future really means. How do we make sure that theres Mars in our moon-to-Mars program? Theres no moon-to-Mars without Mars and theres no Mars without JPL.

Any other NASA budget concerns?

A science versus human spaceflight moment is not good for our community. We all need to pull together to support the diverse portfolio that NASA has. In tight budget times, we tend to fight with each other and that is always a bad idea.

JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission. All on track for liftoff this October?

Europa Clipper just came out of JPLs thermal vacuum chamber. You shake it. You bake it. You look for magnetic cleanliness. End-to-end missions tests to simulate launch, solar array deployment, deep space cruise, orbit insertion at Jupiter, flybys of Europa. Weve done all of that. Were in really good shape. Were on track to ship it to Florida in the May timeframe and get it ready to fly on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.

Theres another look looming at the costly and complex Mars Sample Return program. Whats coming?

I cant talk about it at this time. That review is coming relatively soon to be released in the spring. NASA has funding challenges. Its a really important set of decisions they are making. Mars Sample Return was the next big thing at JPL. So we need to make sure that gets back on track as quickly as possible.

So you see a way forward for Mars Sample Return?

Its a difficult moment. Theres a way to move forward with this mission that will cost less on an annual basis than the prior plan and its very much in line with what weve spent on other large missions. NASA has a chance to go down that path. I hope they will and then Ill breathe.

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JPL chief Laurie Leshin on science, Mars and budget infighting - SpaceNews

NASA Craft Hunting Alien Life Will Carry a New Message From Humanity – Futurism

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An incredible time capsule. Anyone There?

One of NASA's latest probesis carrying on the grand tradition of blasting humanity's message out to the cosmos and this one's searching for life outside of our pale blue dot.

As Gizmodo reports, the space agency has recruited a nonprofit specializing in research and design for future interstellar messaging to assist in its quest not only to find whether Jupiter's icy moon Europa harbors the conditions for life, but also to communicate with anyone or anything that may come across the craft, too.

That nonprofit, named METI International after its "Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence" concept, toldGizmodo that the Europa Clipper mission was a "natural match" for its organization.

"METIs earliest contribution to the project draws on the science of linguistics, which identifies the major families of languages on Earth," METI founder and president Douglas Vakoch told the website in an email. "This let us identify a broadly representative sampling of languages to feature on the message plate."

In a commemorative plate mounted onto the roughly-triangular probe, NASA has inscribed a handwritten version of "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa," which was penned by US Poet Laureate Ada Limn specifically for the mission.

The craft also contains a far-out etching of a bottle surrounded by rings a reference to the agency's "Message in a Bottle" campaign, which urged the public to send their names to be included on the probe. In a microchip at the bottle's center, more than 2.6 million names were stenciled using an electron beam at NASA and CalTech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

One of the mission's coolest communiqus, however, is on the other side of the craft. With METI's help, NASA compiled recordings of people saying the word "water" in 103 global languages and converted them into visual waveforms. Those waveforms were then etched onto the probe in a beautiful starburst design, with the American Sign Language symbol for water resting at its center.

In a nod to our species' own quest to find intelligent life, NASA also included the "Drake equation," named after revered astronomer Frank Drake, who in 1961 developed a formula to try to determine how many advanced civilizations may be out there.

Ultimately, as Vokoch explains, the Europa Clipper's message is more of a time capsule of sorts for future humans than its predecessors sent out on the Pioneer and Voyager missions.

"The more we developed the various parts of the message to be attached to the Europa Clipper," the METI founder told Gizmodo, "the clearer it became that none of these could be interpreted if they were discovered by someone who wasnt already familiar with the contents."

Whether discovered by alien civilizations or by future humans, the Europa Clipper's "message in a bottle" may not make sense to anyone who may find it but ultimately, as its collaborator says, that's beside the point.

More on extraterrestrial life: Scientists Check Whether Space Telescope Could Detect Life on Earth

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NASA Craft Hunting Alien Life Will Carry a New Message From Humanity - Futurism