NASA Shatters Dreams & Admits Humans Will Never Go To Jupiter

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is asking fans and followers to send their names to Jupiter since it is unlikely that they will make it to the largest planet in the Solar System in person during their lifetimes. NASA plans to send the Europa Clipper observation satellite to Jupiter's icy Moon in 2024 after awarding the contract to SpaceX a few years back. As part of the mission, the space agency wants those interested to have their engraved names sent to Jupiter's moon, as it casually informs them that this is the next best thing after an unlikely in person visit to Europa.

NASA awarded SpaceX the Europa Clipper contract in July 2021, and it was one of the first contracts that SpaceX's Falcon Heavy had taken away from the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The SLS is the world's largest operational rocket, but back in 2021, it was facing multiple delays and cost overruns that are speculated to be one reason why the Falcon Heavy was chosen in its stead.

The Clipper mission also made headlines in 2020 when it was part of NASA's budget request for the fiscal year 2021. In this document, the space agency shared that it expected the Europa Clipper spacecraft to have finished construction by November 2023. The primary cost driver for the Clipper was due to SLS's unavailability, as NASA had estimated that storage costs for the spacecraft could range anywhere between $36 million and $60 million should the SLS be available for launch in 2025.

Additionally, launch costs for the SLS were estimated to be $900 million per launch in 2019, significantly higher than the Falcon