NASA confirms Europa Clipper launch on October 10, 2024 with questionable transistors
NASA yesterday confirmed that it has decided to go ahead with the October 10, 2024 launch of its $5+ billion Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter, despite the installation of transistors on the spacecraft that the agency knows are not properly hardened for that harsh environment.
Those transistors were built by a German company as part of equipment used by the spacecraft’s electrical system. Apparently that company hired a subcontractor to furnish the transistors, which failed to make them to the right specifications. Subsequent testing found that it is quite likely that at least some of the transistors will fail when Europa Clipper reaches Jupiter orbit.
It appears that NASA decided that the issue risk was small enough for the mission to achieve its minimal expected results, and decided the cost of delay and bad publicity replacing the transistors before launch would be worse than the limited science payoff and bad publicity that would take place years hence, when those transistors fail.
Remember this story in in 2030 when Europa Clipper enters Jupiter orbit and begins to experience problems.
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NASA yesterday confirmed that it has decided to go ahead with the October 10, 2024 launch of its $5+ billion Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter, despite the installation of transistors on the spacecraft that the agency knows are not properly hardened for that harsh environment.
Those transistors were built by a German company as part of equipment used by the spacecraft’s electrical system. Apparently that company hired a subcontractor to furnish the transistors, which failed to make them to the right specifications. Subsequent testing found that it is quite likely that at least some of the transistors will fail when Europa Clipper reaches Jupiter orbit.
It appears that NASA decided that the issue risk was small enough for the mission to achieve its minimal expected results, and decided the cost of delay and bad publicity replacing the transistors before launch would be worse than the limited science payoff and bad publicity that would take place years hence, when those transistors fail.
Remember this story in in 2030 when Europa Clipper enters Jupiter orbit and begins to experience problems.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Throwing good money after bad.
Mr. Z.
NASA has apparently done some testing that leads it to believe Europa Clipper might function adequately even if not necessarily perfectly. That being the case, NASA might as well send it off and hope for the best. A multi-year teardown and repair operation to replace the iffy MOSFETs at issue would be expensive and wouldn’t even necessarily improve the overall odds of Clipper working out when it finally got to Jupiter as other weaknesses might be introduced during all the remediation work.
Clipper was always a compromise design anyway, which is why, even with perfect MOSFETs, it can only do fly-bys of Europa instead of what is really needed for proper long-term study, namely go into orbit around Europa. That would require a much more radiation-hardened craft than Clipper is going to be even if its suspect MOSFETs turn out to work. Perhaps NASA can work on such a thing while Clipper is en route.
As far as potential disappointment in 2030, if I’m still around to be potentially disappointed I’ll count that a considerable positive. As I believe we are rough contemporaries, I should think you would be of a similar attitude.
Dick Eagleson: Yes, we are rough contemporaries in age, and thinking. I however hate it when people make stupid decisions for the wrong reasons, and in this case that’s what I think NASA has done. It might get done some science, but overall this whole project has been based on politics and bad management, not real research.
But I do agree, if I am around in 2030 to either celebrate Europa Clipper’s unexpected success or condemn its failure I will consider that ability to be a very positive thing. :)