NASA s Design for Message Heading to Jupiter s Moon Europa

There s a legacy of NASA spacecraft carrying inspirational messages into the cosmos, and Europa Clipper will continue this tradition when it launches in October 2024 to Europa, a moon of Jupiter that shows strong evidence of an ocean under its icy crust. A triangular plate seals an opening in the spacecrafts vault, which protects Europa Clippers electronics from Jupiters radiation. The plate will carry a special message into the cosmos. At the heart of the artifact is an engraving of U. S. Poet Laureate Ada Limóns handwritten In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa, along with a silicon microchip stenciled with more than 2. 6 million names submitted by the public. The microchip will be the centerpiece of an illustration of a bottle amid the Jovian system a reference to NASAs Message in a Bottle campaign, which invited the public to send their names with the spacecraft. To learn more about the vault plate, go to: Credit: NASA, JPLCaltech