NASA’s next deep space mission won’t use artificial intelligence

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is preparing for a five-year mission to Europa, one of the moons orbiting the planet Jupiter, and on a sunny Thursday morning in Pasadena, California, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) invited Decipher and other members of the media to see them up close.

However, while the spacecraft will be loaded with a lot of advanced technology, there will be no artificial intelligence chatbots on board.

Clipper Mission

Launched in October, the Europa Clipper will study the Galilean moon Europa through a series of flybys in orbit around Jupiter. The mission is designed to document Jupiter’s moon and assess its habitability. The spacecraft will conduct detailed reconnaissance, study the icy surface and subsurface ocean, look for signs of life, and analyze the composition and geology of the Moon.

Media Day began at the NASA/JPL Visitor Center, where we checked in securely, received our credentials, and met our guides.

After boarding the tour bus, we headed to the building where the Europa Clipper was located and began to enter the “clean room”.

Introduction to Europa Clipper

Preparing to enter the Europa Clipper warehouse was an interesting experience. First we were told to walk on a sticky mat that would remove all the dirt and particles from our shoes.

After cleaning the shoes, we deposited all the equipment we planned to take to be cleaned before it was returned. We were then taken to a room full of gowns and protective gear to put everything on.

After putting on the suit, the last step before entering the clean room was to take an air shower to give myself a final check and remove any dust and particles. Walking into the warehouse where the Europa Clipper was located, the first thing I noticed was how big the room was.

“We’ll need every inch of this space once all the parts of the Europa Clipper are in place and it’s time to dismantle the device,” said a member of the quality assurance team. Decipherpointing to the high ceiling.

How it’s done

My first impression of the Europa Clipper was how fragile it looked, but the engineering team told me that the orbiter was designed to withstand a strong impact.

“We handle it delicately and then put it in a shaker, which simulates launch conditions and shakes the spacecraft vigorously,” said JPL harness engineer Luis Aguila. Decipher. “This makes sure everything is secure, nothing breaks along the way, and then we test it again,” he said, noting that the team conducted vibration testing earlier this year.

Aguila also noted that the Europa Clipper’s total weight exceeds 13,000 pounds.

According to Europa Clipper project manager Jordan Evans, the shape and design are thoughtful and serve multiple purposes.

“The shape is determined by a few things: it has to fit inside the rocket, and the rocket is only five meters in diameter (about 16.4 feet), so everything, including the solar panels, has to fit,” he told Evans Decipher. “Then, as we make each flyby, different scientific instruments have to look at the lunar surface.”

Evans explained that some of the instruments are positioned to face the direction of the spacecraft’s flight because they are designed to analyze the Moon’s atmosphere. Other instruments must be isolated from the spacecraft to avoid interference. Evans emphasized that each tool has specific requirements that must be taken into account in the design of the Europa Clipper.

The Europa Clipper project, Evans said, involves a complex process of balancing these requirements to ensure one does not negatively impact the other, leading to the final design of the spacecraft.

Sending the data collected by Europa Clipper back to Earth requires a three-meter (approximately 9.84 feet) high-gain antenna mounted on top of the spacecraft.

“This relates to the deep space network, which is also managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” Evans said. “So no matter where Jupiter and Europa Clipper are relative to Earth, one of the ground stations around Earth has a direct line of sight to the spacecraft,” he said, adding that the spacecraft is capable of sending data back through Earth. the large antenna faces those on the ground.

AI and space exploration

Artificial intelligence (AI) has played a significant role in recent space exploration efforts. In October, a team of Northwestern University scientists and astronomers reported using artificial intelligence to identify and classify supernovae in real time.

While artificial intelligence plays an increasingly important role in space exploration and NASA/JPL projects, Evans said Europa Clipper does not use AI in any meaningful way.

“No…you can think of it more like a standard computer,” added flight systems engineer Tracy Drain. “There’s software on board that has everything fully programmed and tells you what to do.”

Everything the spacecraft needs to operate must be on board, since accessing the cloud on Earth would mean a 52-minute delay each way.

After visiting the Europa Clipper and removing all safety equipment, we took a bus to the Von Karman Auditorium to learn more about the facility and mission.

History of high technology

Founded in 1943, JPL traces its roots back to the 1930s to the work of a group of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) students, professors and enthusiasts dubbed the “Suicide Squad” by their peers. The Suicide Squad included American aeronautical engineer Frank Malina, Hungarian aerospace engineer Theodor von Karman, and rocket scientist, chemist, and occultist John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons.

In December 1958, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory became part of the newly created NASA.

After visiting the Europa Clipper and removing all safety equipment, we took the bus to the von Karman hall. The space was filled with posters and artifacts from past and present NASA/JPL missions, including Voyager, Cassini, and, of course, Europa Clipper.

Look, don’t touch

“The primary goal is to search for an environment that can support life, not a mission to detect life,” said JPL deputy project scientist Bonnie Buratti. Decipher. “We are looking for an environment in which life can be formed and sustained.”

While Europa’s surface appears to be covered in ice, Buratti said that unlike the icy world in Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film Interstellar, it is unclear whether it is safe to land on or walk on the lunar surface.

As Buratti explained, the evidence suggests visible deposits of sediment, possibly plume deposits, forming a brittle surface. These different layers can hide cracks that can get into them and remain hidden.

“One of the things we’re going to look for is activity, because if you look at this image of Europa, it doesn’t have a lot of craters,” Buratti said. “There has been active geology for the last 50 million years, which is a blink in geologic time.”

As Buratti explained, if Europa Clipper finds signs of life on the Moon, this is not a cause for concern, but rather a reason for further exploration, recognizing that landing on the lunar surface is currently impossible.

“At this time, NASA has no plans to land on Europa,” Burrata said. “But if we found something that suggested life, again, it’s not a mission to look for it, we’re looking for an environment that could support life; I think NASA is probably planning to send another mission there.”

Summary

Visiting the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was an incredible experience, and for a lifelong space exploration and history fan, it was like Christmas came early. When asked how a middle or high school student interested in science and space can get a job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Drain said the door is open to everyone.

“My favorite thing is telling kids that you don’t have to be an engineer or a scientist to do this kind of work,” Drain said, emphasizing that critical thinking is a key skill. “If you are interested in the arts, journalism, computer science and finance, there are many ways for you to work here in the space industry.”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.