NASA weighs concerns about Europa Clipper mission’s durability

12 Jul. () –

NASA Europa Clipper mission engineers continue extensive testing of transistors that help control the flow of electricity in the spacecraft.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission, began testing after learning that some of these parts “they might not be able to withstand the radiation of the Jupiter system, which is the most intense radiation environment in the solar system.”

The spacecraft arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in May, where the team recently attached the high-gain antenna. Europa Clipper’s launch period begins on October 10 and it is scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2030.where it will conduct scientific investigations to understand Europa’s potential habitability as it makes multiple flybys of the Moon.

Testing is also underway at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. APL designed the main body of the spacecraft in collaboration with JPL and NASA Goddard.

FAILURES WITH LOWER THAN EXPECTED RADIATION DOSES

The problem with the transistors came to light in May when the mission team was informed that “Similar parts were failing at lower radiation doses than expected.” An industry alert was sent out in June to notify users of this issue. The manufacturer is working with the mission team to support ongoing radiation testing and analysis efforts to better understand the risk of using these parts on the Europa Clipper spacecraft.

Test data obtained so far indicate that some transistors are likely to fail in the high-radiation environment near Jupiter and its moon Europa because the parts are not as radiation-resistant as expected. The team is working to determine how many transistors may be susceptible and how they will perform in flight. “NASA is evaluating options to maximize transistor longevity in the Jupiter system. A preliminary analysis is expected to be completed by the end of July,” NASA reported in a statement.

HUGE MAGNETIC FIELD

Radiation-hardened electronics are used throughout the industry to protect spacecraft from radiation damage that can occur in space. The Jupiter system is particularly damaging to spacecraft because its enormous magnetic field, 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field, traps charged particles and accelerates them to very high energies, creating intense radiation that bombards Europa and other inner moons.

The issue that may be affecting Europa Clipper’s transistors appears to be “a phenomenon that the industry was not aware of and represents a recently identified gap” in the industry’s standard radiation qualification of transistor wafer batches, according to the space agency.