A Closer Look At Falcon Heavy’s Most Expensive Payload Yet

We now are just over a month away from the launch of a single spacecraft worth around $5 billion. Over the last decade, this spacecraft, named Europa Clipper, has been undergoing development, testing, and now final preparations. The vehicle tasked with integrating and launching this payload is SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.

Considering both its size and the distant destination of Jupiter, they needed a vehicle with immense power along with some unique characteristics. Here I will go more in-depth into the spacecraft itself, general mission progress, what to expect in the coming weeks, and more.

Credit:

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:30 - An Important Payload
3:38 - Radiation Concerns

[kevikiru]

For the first time, I am nervous about the flight. It's 5 Billion! I feel like it's falcon heavy's 1st mission or starships IFT1 while it is its 11th.

[thaywiz_gwar]

I have learned a whopping lot from your channel. Well done!

[bobkoski]

“ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.
USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two

[jonasfalkenstrom]

Your intonation is getting better and better. Still there are some parts that I get distracted by, but great progress! Looking forward to more excellent videos!

[anonydunfgoog]

I wonder how much the premium and deductible are for the insurance for that launch...

[Derpy]

Testing of “transistors that control the flow of electricity”, eh?

I guess it doesn’t get any more basic than that.

[darkelement-bk]

Great video. Explains that GIDEP I got a few months back about rad-hard transistors!

[lyricbread]

Hopefully they’ll make contact with Dave Bowman/Halman when it reaches Europa.

[Yusuke_Denton]

I like how they have the thing chained up and suspended in the test chamber like some holy mechanical artifact from Warhammer40k.

[goodcitizen]

COol project. Neat with the huge solar panel. I wonder kind of battery. Maybe just a LifePO4?

[SupremeOverlord]

They kept saying "transistors" are they talking MOSFETS or just the IC substrate (like critical dimension?) transistors just doesn't make sense.

[itzsleazy]

Anybody know what the new radiation findings are/where I can read more about it?

[DeepSpaceIndustriesLOL]

Europa Clipper feels like the most important payload of my lifetime, not JWST, I've been following clipper for many years and its my favourite spacecraft

[JxH]

Given the following factors: 1) the reduction in the cost of launch (i.e. SpaceX), and 2) the massive cost of *development* of the payload (e.g. $5B in this example)-> It's seems obvious that they should build the payload in Qty 2 or Qty 3, and this may allow them to accept increased risk and thus reduce overall program cost.

Edit to add: Not everyone will understand. See below...

Especially TheEvilmooseofdoom...

[menguardingtheirownwallets]

Solid rocket boosters almost always provide a ton of shaking that causes damage to sensitive instrument payloads such as the 'Europa Clipper'. The astronauts on the Space Shuttle were always commenting on how they were amazed that the extreme shaking did not rip the Shuttle apart during launch.

[Nightsd]

I don’t get why they don’t build 2 of these satellites in case something happens on launch. So many of the costs of a second satellite wouldn’t be a lot higher

[scottymoondogjakubin]

SLS would cost billions yet spacex could complete the mission for $ millions ! Its a no brainer !

[Zirlikus]

Wasn't alway Ariane 5 the go to for deep space mission because of the higher ISP on the last stage?

[ericg]

Price payload cost: 5 billion.
My wife's love after 39 years: Priceless.

[geoffgeoff]

Is Boeing involved?!
$5 BILLION - but the Europa Clipper team didn't KNOW that the transistors would be subjected to 20, 000 times stronger radiation when designing the equipment? D'oh!