Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jvanderbot 1203 days ago
Jupiter's radiation is so intense that Europa Clipper has a _super weird_ mission profile (a bunch of fly-bys instead of an orbit) so that the spacecraft doesn't spend too much time cooking in all that.

https://europa.nasa.gov/

1 comments

The current Juno probe flies in 53 day orbits where only a few hours are in heavy radiation. It has made 48 orbits. The mission has been extended 7 years to 2025. If Juno runs low on fuel or the hardware breaks down, it will be crashed into Jupiter to avoid hitting and contaminating a moon.