Sunday, November 17, 2024
Islamabad (News International. DW new. November 17, 2024) The American space agency NASA has launched an important mission to Jupiter's moon Europa from the Cape Carnival launch pad in Florida on October 14. This spacecraft will reach its destination by the early 2030s by traveling one-tenth eight billion miles, while it will be possible to start regular scientific research by 2031.
A longtime resident of Germany, Dr. Nozeer Khawaja is part of the research team of the Europa Clipper mission and is also part of Japan's "Destiny Plus" mission. Born in Pakistan's Punjab province, Dr. Nozeer has previously been associated with several missions of the European Space Agency and NASA.
Deutsche Welle has an exclusive interview with Dr. Nozeer Khawaja about the goals and importance of his new mission.
What are the main objectives of the Europa Clipper mission?
Dr Nozeer Khawaja told Deutsche Welle that the main purpose of sending the Europa Clipper mission is to find out how habitable this moon of Jupiter is. Dr. Nozier also described three other important scientific objectives of the mission. According to him, its first objective is to determine the thickness of Europa's ice sheet and details of its interaction with the underlying ocean.
Another goal of the mission is to gather information about the composition of its oceans and its mantle. While the third objective is to evaluate the features of Europa's surface geology.
According to Dr. Nozier, this detailed study of Europa will help scientists better understand the possibilities of life-friendly environments on worlds other than our Earth.
Dr. Nozeer Khawaja says that the general media impression is that the Europa Clipper spacecraft will look for signs of life or "alien life" on this moon of Jupiter. In fact, it may be a secondary goal of the mission to find signs of life during the exploration or to find the necessary ingredients for life in Europa's oceans and prebiotic factors are occurring there.
What is Dr. Nozier's role in this mission?
Dr Nozeer Khawaja told Deutsche Welle that when a space mission is designed, all the experts, researchers and scientists involved in the experiments are commissioned for the project. Dr. Nozier is also directly involved in this mission and is a team member of the "SODA" or SUDA, a special instrument installed in the spacecraft.
He explains that the team will analyze the data from the Europa Clipper instrument to determine the composition of the water ocean beneath the surface of icy Europa. In particular, with the help of this device, scientists will try to learn about the components that are essential for life, which are called "biosignatures".
Does Europa have twice as much water in its oceans as Earth?
In 1997, the Galileo mission was sent to Jupiter's moon Europa, which made 12 close-bys (flybys) and identified an ocean hidden beneath its icy surface.
Europa's ocean is estimated to be about 40 to 100 miles deep, 16 times deeper than Earth's oceans.
Dr. Nozeer Khawaja told Deutsche Welle that Europa's sea salt water is in a liquid state, hidden under a thick layer of ice. This layer is estimated to be 10 to 15 miles thick.
They point out that there are several hypotheses about how much water Europa's ocean might contain, based on important data from the Galileo mission.
This ocean may contain twice the total water of the Earth, but the final results will be available only when the Europa spacecraft reaches there and sends important information with the help of advanced instruments.
What scientific investigations will the Europa Clipper spacecraft carry out?
Dr. Nozeer Khawaja told Deutsche Welle that a total of nine instruments are installed in the Europa Clipper spacecraft. Some of these relate to remote sensing, which will help determine how thick Europa's ocean ice is and the salinity of its water.
They explain that Europa's salty ocean creates a secondary magnetic field that changes both the direction and strength of Jupiter's magnetic field.
The Europa Clipper spacecraft also has instruments installed to monitor these changes.
He adds that Europa Clipper is a very interesting mission. Jupiter's atmosphere is quite harsh due to radiation, which can make it difficult to get data from there. So a flyby mission has been sent there, which will make 50 flybys near Europa but will not enter its orbit.
According to Dr. Nozeer, meteorites fall on the earth every day, while many of them are blocked by the upper atmosphere of the earth. But not so on Europa. There, when a meteorite falls, material from Europa's surface reacts by lifting up several kilometers in the form of micrometer-sized particles. These particles can be picked up by instruments such as SODA or mass spectrometers aboard Europa Clipper, whose observations will provide information on the composition of its surface.
Dr Nozier explains that the data will reveal whether these compositions are unique to Europa's surface or are linked to its icy seas. Therefore, only in the light of all these information will it be possible to finally tell how habitable or habitable Europa is.
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