NASA Puts A Solar Panel On The Europa Clipper Aircraft Agency

Testing of the Europa Clipper solar panels (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA Not long ago, NASA added solar panels to the Europa Clipper spacecraft. The panel with a length of 14.2 meters and a height of 4.1 meters was installed at the Kennedy Space Center, one of NASA's facilities. The US space agency said it deliberately made large panels to make more solar rays absorbed during observing Europa, the Moon from Jupiter. This natural satellite is about 481 million kilometers from Earth. The panel has been installed to the main body of the Europa Clipper in folded conditions. As the Clipper is deployed into space, the solar panel will be stretched to a size of 30.5 meters. This solar panel is referred to as the wing of the technicians. The Clipper uses a battery with solar power to run the entire electronics, instrumental payload, communication equipment, computers, and a propulsion system consisting of 24 machines. In order for this component to run, the panel must operate at a very cold temperature. Before the Clipper launches on October 10, the technicians will continue to ensure that the solar panels can operate at extreme temperatures. The technicians test the panel in the special cryogenic space in the LiEEge Space Center, Belgium.

"This idea has an active thermal heating and loop, keeping it in a much more normal temperature range," said Surya Panel Product Delivery Manager Taejoo Lee. "This solar panel is exposed to a vacuum without any heating. This solar panel is completely passive, so whatever the environment is, the temperature it gets remains that way. Lee added that the manufacture of this solar panel is not easy and not a few feel the development of this panel is impossible. However, in the end, technicians managed to create and pair a powerful panel into the main body of the Clipper. "We really thought it would be impossible to develop a powerful enough solar panel array to host this giant antenna. It was difficult, but the team mobilized a lot of creativity to face those challenges, and we succeeded," said Lee.