NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, set to arrive in 2030. As it travels through space, the star trackers on board are capturing images of distant stars, including the constellation Corvus, to help navigate the spacecraft.
These cameras play a crucial role in ensuring the spacecraft can align its antennas and instruments correctly, which is essential for communication with Earth. The star trackers’ first images from deep space were captured in early December, revealing faint pinpricks of light from stars 150-300 light-years away.
“This is an engineering hardware test,” said Joanie Noonan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We usually don’t downlink photos from the trackers, but we did in this case because it’s a good way to make sure the hardware made it safely through launch.”
The star trackers are also critical for the mission’s science operations, as they help determine the spacecraft’s precise orientation. This is essential for keeping the Europa Imaging System (EIS), which will collect images of Europa’s surface and subsurface ocean, accurately pointed.
Europa Clipper carries nine science instruments, including EIS, to study Europa’s habitability and search for signs of life beyond Earth. The mission aims to determine the thickness of Europa’s ice shell, analyze its composition, and characterize its surface geology.
As the spacecraft travels through space, it has already passed 54 million miles from Earth and will soon fly by Mars. By 2030, it will enter Jupiter’s orbit and conduct detailed flybys of Europa to investigate its potential for supporting life.
Source: https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-europa-clipper-captures-first-starfield-images-from-deep-space