Recently identified flaws in electronic circuits on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft could jeopardize the $5 billion mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moon and its subsurface ocean.

As preparations continue for an October launch from Kennedy Space Center, a team of engineers is reviewing the issue, with a report expected later this month.

The problem involves metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) that fail to meet the mission’s radiation-hardness standards.

These transistors are critical for powering the spacecraft’s systems but are vulnerable to damage from high-energy radiation in Jupiter’s harsh environment, Science has reported.

The issue was discovered in May during discussions about a classified satellite, revealing that a batch of MOSFETs from Infineon Technologies did not meet performance expectations.

Written by B.C. Begley