Heliospace, a subsidiary of Helio Corporation, has reached a significant milestone with the successful deployment of radar antennas aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. These antennas are a critical part of the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) instrument, designed to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa and its icy crust.
Heliospace played a key role in designing, assembling, testing, and delivering the radar antennas under contract with Caltech. The two High Frequency (HF) antennas extend over 55 feet in length, while four smaller Very High Frequency (VHF) antennas span approximately 9 feet each. Ingeniously compact, the antennas are situated on the edges of the spacecraft’s solar arrays.
"We're excited that our hardware has passed this first crucial milestone and look forward to the discoveries that the REASON instrument will make at Europa," said Greg Delory, co-founder and CEO of Heliospace.
Unveiling Europa's Secrets
REASON, led by principal investigator Dr. Donald Blankenship of the University of Texas at Austin, is a dual-frequency ice-penetrating radar instrument designed to investigate Europa’s icy crust. It will provide unprecedented insights into the structure of the moon’s ice shell and search for subsurface water, enhancing our understanding of this potentially habitable environment. The mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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