In article ,
says...

On 2019-08-21 12:38, wrote:
"NASA has confirmed a mission to Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter,


The actual NASA press releas at:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/europa-...moon-confirmed

says nothing about launch vehicle.

Question:

Would launching on SLS vs Falcon vs Delta IV result in significantly
different structure in the spacecraft itself to widthsnad different
launch environments (G force, vibration) or would those basically be
equivalent and they focus only on mass?

They'll likely design the structure to be launched on any of the
vehicles which could be available.

The bigger problem is thermals. If you launch on a vehicle that
requires a Venus flyby, the spacecraft has to be able to handle the
thermal environment of the inner solar system as well as the outer solar
system. That's a challenge. But it's also a challenge that other outer
planet missions have had.

And from a budget point of view, would "Planetary Missions Programm
Office" be able to "steal" an SLS from the Artemis programm office or
would that be really diffidult now that Artemis is on a high level of PR
and they woudln.t want to announce any cutback to program with the
limited numebr of SLS launches they have?

There would be no stealing. Congress would either fund it, or it would
not. Best to not bet on having an SLS and design the thing to be
capable of being launched on more than one launch vehicle.

Could Europa Clipper launch on oe of the unmanned SLS test launches
(thus not cutting into Artemis's plans) ?

Nope. First SLS flight is uncrewed Orion. Second SLS flight is crewed
Orion. So exactly one uncrewed test flight for SLS before it's declared
"operational". That's a hell of a lot less than NASA required of the
SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5, which I believe was seven successful launches
in the same configuration to be used for commercial crew.

Jeff

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