NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is heading toward Jupiter to discover the mystery of the subglacial ocean located on Europa, one of its largest moons. However, as it turns out, some of its electronic components may be unprepared to meet the giant planet’s radiation belts.
Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper is a NASA spacecraft whose purpose is to explore the Jupiter system. However, as it turns out, it has been known for some time that the mission could have serious problems with the strong magnetic fields and increased radiation seen near the giant planet.
The Europa Clipper mission went into space on October 14, 2024. It is expected to reach the gas giant’s system in April 2030 and enter orbit around it. Researchers’ attention will be focused on the planet’s four largest moons, especially Europa.
Scientists have long suspected the existence of an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. However, no vehicle that has investigated it so far has had sensitive enough equipment to confirm this definitively. That’s exactly what the Europa Clipper should be.
Technical problems
The Europa Clipper mission has been in preparation for more than a year. However, scientists learned that it had serious technical problems months before the launch, when the vehicle had already been assembled and tested in terrestrial conditions.
The fact is that the scientists knew about the radiation danger, so all the electronic equipment is designed according to the standards that the military applies to its satellites. Moreover, there were additional requirements for all these components because the radiation near Jupiter is actually much stronger than that observed near Earth.
However, in May 2024, the scientists responsible for the launch learned that the MOSFET transistors used on the vehicle did not meet these additional conditions. However, they heard it accidentally in a conversation between a person from the test team and a representative of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, their manufacturer.
Solving problems with transistors
The fact that no one thought to provide additional resistance to radiation when manufacturing MOSFETs shocked everyone. The engineers began to take action. First, they made a list of all the systems that included these transistors. Then they began to model the effect of increased radiation on them. It turned out that in some cases they would continue to work, and in some cases they would not.
The subcontractor who actually manufactured the parts actively worked with the team, attempting to solve the problem. But another thing became clear very quickly. Only a third of the Europa Clipper parts that contained the problem transistors were available in stock for independent testing.
However, all of the Europa Clipper’s electronics were already inside the protective aluminum-zinc alloy container. On the one hand, this guaranteed it additional protection during flight, but on the other hand, it meant that if the team decided to replace the transistors, the launch would have to be postponed for at least two years.
Therefore, the engineers developed a different solution instead. Since the main problem is excessive radiation heating of the parts during maximum approaches to Jupiter, they will be further heated when they are far from the radiation source and thus further harden them.
Hopes for the best
Anyway, the risk of parts failure was finally recognized as acceptable and the Europa Clipper was launched. Of course, the problem has not disappeared anywhere, but the engineers believe that the risk is really minimal and the device will be able to work off the entire planned program.
However, some common questions remain. And they concern components manufactured according to U.S. military standards. Previously, NASA purchased them without much thought as to what radiation levels they were actually designed for and what they were not. Now it has become clear that for many of the space agency’s missions, they are definitely not suitable.
According to spacenews.com
