Handful of Europa Clipper Updates

While the majority of this SpaceNews article by Jeff Foust is focused on Congressional wrestling over how much money Europa Clipper should receive, there are a few other tidbits of interest:

NASA has not yet selected a launch vehicle for the mission, but the baseline remains the Space Launch System, which allows the spacecraft to travel from Earth directly to Jupiter. Pappalardo said the mission is continuing to study the use of Delta 4 Heavy and Falcon Heavy as alternatives, but those would require the use of gravity assists that increase the mission’s flight time. The use of the Atlas 5 has been “closed off,” he said.

…

A notional plan for the lander mission calls for its launch in 2024 on an SLS, separate from the Europa Clipper spacecraft. The spacecraft would land on surface of Europa using a version of the “skycrane” system demonstrated by the Curiosity Mars rover in 2012. The spacecraft, powered solely by batteries, will operate after landing for about three weeks.

So far we hear about an SLS launch in potentially 2021 (EM-2), 2022 (Europa Clipper), potentially 2023 (EM-2 fallback date), 2024 (Europa lander), and 2025-6 (Asteroid Redirect Mission crewed flight). Are they really going to be able to get the flight rate up to once every year or so that quickly? After only one flight of the launch vehicle in 2018?

Also, NASA’s so-called “Mars rocket” is certainly looking like more a “Jupiter rocket” than anything else.

“Mission success, in NASA’s mind for this mission, which is 23 or so days long, is that on day 25 we have a press conference at NASA Headquarters and announce that we’ve found life,” Niebur said. “If that is an unrealistic expectation, I need to know it now and not on day 22 of the mission.”

This is idiotic, laughable, and completely unrealistic. To think that you could plop a lander down on Europa and find life in just over three weeks is one thing. To hang “mission success” on that incredible scenario does not set you up for a successful program.