Dundee can now lay claim to four Js — jute, jam, journalism and Jupiter — after intricate parts designed and built in the city blasted into space.
Nasa has launched its latest mission to the solar system’s largest planet, destined for its ice moon of Europa.
The Europa Clipper is using parts built, tried and tested in Dundee which are integral to its success.
All going well, the spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles to reach Jupiter by April 2030.
And space tech pioneers Smiths Interconnect, which has operated in the City of Discovery for 35 years, played a vital part in the mission.
Smiths provided connectivity and communication components for the craft, which is hurtling towards Jupiter at phenomenal speeds.
Basically, the parts built in Dundee will help guide the payload on its journey.
After that, they will transmit readings and date scanned from Europa back to Earth.
The mission will see the spacecraft carry out a number of “flybys” to detect whether there is an ocean under the vast ice crust covering the moon.
And if so, it could indicate the possibility of life being discovered outside of Earth for the first time.
Dundee tech in space
Smiths Interconnect engineering manager Grant Robertson spoke to The Courier to explain Dundee’s role in the Nasa mission.
“We made the hardware, all of the designs have been done in Dundee. All of it has been produced and tested here too,” he said.
“These were all done around 18 months ago, and since then they’ve been shipped to America and integrated.
“We supply what are known as passive microwave components.
“The telemetry equipment is what controls the satellite on its journey from Earth to the Europa moon of Jupiter.
“It senses the health of the satellite, and works out any corrections needed.
“Once it reaches Jupiter, it will fly round the moon about 50 times and carry out a series of mapping.
“And our second component will send the data back from the payload (satellite) back to Earth.
“Getting parts to the moons of Jupiter is incredibly exciting. We have parts built here all over the solar system.
“There are many missions over the last 35 years we have been involved in and the Europa Clipper mission is certainly one of the more high profile ones. It puts Dundee on the map.”
What the Dundee space tech does on Jupiter moon mission
The sensors built at Smiths Interconnect send telemetry data — measurements and other critical data points collected on Europa’s surface — beamed back to earth for monitoring and investigation.
And Nasa believes there is strong evidence Europa has a saltwater ocean under its ice layer, which may be one of the best places to look for life beyond Earth.
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