Dozens of LASP employees, family members, and friends attended the launch of NASA’s flagship Europa Clipper mission, which includes a unique instrument built at the lab on CU Boulder’s East Campus. Credit: NASA +
On October 14, as a powerful Falcon Heavy rocket blasted off the pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, launching the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built towards Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, excited employees of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder cheered: “Go Clipper! Go SUDA!”
SUDA is the Europa SUrface Dust Analyzer, a unique $53 million instrument designed and built at LASP for NASA’s flagship Europa Clipper mission. SUDA will gather fragments of Europa’s surface that micrometeorite collisions have blasted into space, identifying their chemistry and revealing Europa’s surface composition, including potential organic molecules. The results will help scientists explore whether the moon, and its subsurface ocean, have conditions that could support life.
The instrument’s principal investigator Dr. Sascha Kempf, a LASP researcher and associate professor in the Physics Department, has been working on this instrument for nearly 20 years. “I’m very, very happy that SUDA has launched,” said Kempf. “SUDA will provide a unique way to explore the surface of Europa without landing on it. I can’t wait to get the first results!”
The entire campus is celebrating this milestone, including Chancellor Justin Schwartz, who joined CU Boulder in July. “SUDA is a remarkable instrument embarking on an amazing journey of scientific discovery to Europa,” said Schwartz. “As the number one public university recipient of NASA research awards, CU Boulder has a tremendous impact on space-related research and the economy of Colorado. I couldn’t be more excited to share this historic moment with the team from LASP and our entire campus.”
Go SUDA!
Nearly 30 LASP employees involved in the mission witnessed the launch from NASA’s fabled Launch Complex 39-A, the same pad where many Apollo missions began, at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The excitement was tangible for the engineers and scientists who were fortunate to attend in person.
“I am humbled every time I witness a launch that is carrying a piece of hardware that I had the honor of working on,” saidLead SUDA Engineering TechnicianMarc Miller, who attended the launch withninefamily members. “Havingmy loved ones there to witness this event with me made it even more special.”
“Since we started building SUDA in 2015, roughly 100 people at LASP have worked on this instrument, including the business side of things,” said LASP engineer and SUDA Project Manager Scott Tucker. “There’s a name plate on the inside of SUDA where we’ve engraved the names of people who participated in building the instrument over the years.” Added Tucker, “It takes a big group of people to make something like this happen. I think that’s what I’m most excited about.”
“I had such a mix of feelings watching this launch,” said Melanie Fisher, the lead thermal engineer for SUDA. “I was thinking about how momentous it is and remembering all the work I’ve done and the big piece of my life that I’ve put into the mission. At the same time, I was also standing there with a big, dumb grin, thinking whoa, rockets are cool!”
CU celebration
Back on the CU Boulder campus, student ambassadors for the popular space minor also excitedly watched the launch livestream. Ambassador Owen Wolfinger, a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering, finds the potential knowledge gained from exploring icy moons like Europa especially exciting. “Large NASA missions, such asEuropa Clipper, not only provide valuable insights but also raise intriguing questions for future scientists and engineers. The lessons learned fromEuropa Clipperwill complement discoveries from missions likeNASA’s Dragonflyand the search for habitable exoplanets,” he said.
The CU space minor, which is open to any major on the CU campus, helps students find a pathway to a career in the space industry. Wolfinger chose to pursue it “because it offers a holistic study of space in our life, from the politics and funding to the cutting-edge planetary science of missions likeEuropa Clipper.” Wolfinger and other space minor ambassadors will be organizing a talk about Europa Clipper science at the university’s Fiske Planetarium later this semester.
LASP researcher Zoltan Sternovsky, a professor of Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences and a co-investigator for the SUDA instrument, also viewed the launch from Boulder. “It was so inspiring to watch,” Sternovsky said. “Opportunities like this really highlight for students the importance of space applications and technologies for the future of our society.”
A sensitive instrument
SUDA is, by far, the most sensitive mass spectrometer of its type to fly in space, and it’s uniquely capable of detecting salts and organics in grains of dust and ice. SUDA can also measure the grains’ speed and direction, which will indicate where they originated on Europa’s surface. If a subsurface ocean or reservoir is venting material into space as plumes, SUDA will analyze those particles to help determine whether Europa’s water is suitable for some form of life.
“What we learn from SUDA will allow us to address fundamental questions for humanity, including whether it’s likely that life could have formed elsewhere in the solar system,” said Kempf. “I think that’s one of the most important scientific questions of all.”
by Terri Cook, LASP Head of Communications
Founded a decade before NASA, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder is on a mission to revolutionize human understanding of the cosmos by pioneering new technologies and approaches to space science. The institute is at the forefront of solar, planetary, and space physics research, climate and space-weather monitoring, and the search for evidence of habitable worlds. LASP is also deeply committed to inspiring and educating the next generation of space explorers. From the first exploratory rocket measurements of Earth’s upper atmosphere to trailblazing observations of every planet in the solar system, LASP continues to build on its remarkable history with a nearly $1 billion portfolio of new research and engineering programs, backed by superb data analysis, reliable mission operations, and skilled administrative support.
