Europa Clipper's developmental test modelsits on a flatbed truck at NASA's Jet Propulsion laboratory on its way to structural testing.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Europa Clipper's developmental test model (DTM) sits on a truck at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory en route to a static test chamber. The DTM is identical to flight hardware of Europa Clipper's propulsion module and electronics vault — same size, materials, fasteners, and specifications. By performing structural testing on an identical copy of Europa Clipper, engineers can ensure the spacecraft's structure integrity without risk of damaging or putting unnecessary fatigue on the actual spacecraft.
