“My view is that the Space Launch System will be transformative for science,” Grunsfeld told members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Science, Space and Technology Committee during a hearing Tuesday entitled “Exploration of the Solar System: From Mercury to Pluto and Beyond
Now Nasa planning to mission about to reach on Jupiter’s ocean-harboring moon Europa, they think to launch this mission by mid of 2020
Using SLS instead of currently available rockets would slash the probe’s journey to the Jupiter system from about eight years to less than three years, Grunsfeld said.
About Space Launch System SLS
Space Launch System is an American Space Shuttle-derived heavy expendable launch vehicle being designed by NASA. It is using In place of older Space Shuttle that are not working properly.
He also said “This is one of those rare cases where time really is money”.he also said “In that extra cruise time, you know, we have to maintain an engineering team and a science team and a spacecraft while it’s in cruise, even if we hibernate. And that’s something that also delays the science.”
This August, Nasa made milestone in Universe, Nasa‘s Horizons spacecraft first-ever flyby of Pluto.
was launched by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
Grunsfeld said “New Horizons weighed just 1,050 lbs. (480 kilograms) fully fueled, but its mission still required the most powerful variant of the Atlas V”
And New Horizons zoomed straight through the Pluto system at high speed for a one-time flyby. Spacecraft that linger around a celestial body — such as the Europa probe, which will perform at least 45 flybys of Europa from Jupiter orbit — cannot travel so light, said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the SouthwestResearch Institute in Boulder, Colorado
It is not enough for Nasa, they also plans for “evolved” 384-foot-tall (117 m) SLS version that can launch 143 tons (130,000 kg) and generate 20 percent more thrust than the Saturn.
