NASA Tests a Prototype Europa Lander
- Universetoday
Using planetary models, they further theorized that Europa (and the other Galilean Moons) experienced tidal flexing in its interior resulting from interactions with Jupiter’s powerful gravity.
This, they speculated, could lead to hydrothermal activity at the moon’s core-mantle boundary, providing the necessary heat and chemical energy for life. Subsequent missions have only reinforced this suspicion by detecting plume activity, carbon dioxide, and mineral salts on the moon’s surface.
Creating a Europa Lander that can navigate the challenging terrain requires an advanced approach, which NASA engineers are addressing by adapting elements that have worked in the past.
This includes the architecture used for the “sky crane” landing system used by NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, which relied on parachutes and retro rockets to slow their descent and a pulley system to lower them onto the surface.
Moreover, this system was tested in a simulated environment at NASA’s JPL at Caltech on August 17th and 18th, the highlight of which can be seen in the video above.
The JPL engineers created a simulated propulsive descent stage for their prototype that kept the Europa Lander steady as four bridles lowered it.
The Lander has four legs, each of which has a four-bar linkage mechanism that controls the leg’s pose before and during landing. Each leg is preloaded downward with a constant force spring to help them rearrange and compress the surface they encounter as they slowly touch down on the surface.
This allows the legs to conform passively to whatever terrain they encounter while providing extra traction and stability during and after the landing event.
The underside of the Lander has a belly pan (similar to a skid plate on an automobile) that resists sheer motion and protects the Lander from potentially harmful terrain.
Once the belly pan contacts the surface, sensors trigger a mechanism that locks the legs’ rotary joints. At this point, the legs become responsible for maintaining stability and keeping the lander level as the bridles are unloaded.
