A close Mars flyby, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft tested its radar system

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The radar’s flawless performance thrilled scientists, as it successfully bounced signals off the Martian surface—proving it’s ready to scan Europa’s ice shell for signs of a hidden ocean. The 60GB of data gathered not only confirmed the hardware’s reliability but also gave researchers an early opportunity to fine-tune their analytical tools before Clipper reaches Jupiter’s icy moon in 2030.

“We got everything out of the flyby that we dreamed,” said Don Blankenship, principal investigator of the radar instrument at the University of Texas at Austin. “The goal was to determine the radar’s readiness for the Europa mission, and it worked. Every part of the instrument proved itself to do exactly what we intended.”

https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-new-radar-just-pulled-off-something-impossible-on-earth/