Spacecraft Will Explore Jupiter’s Icy Moon For Habitability

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy booster system successfully launched NASA’s Europa Clipper mission shortly after noon on October 14, sending the spacecraft on its journey of approximately 5 and-a-half-years to Europa, one of Jupiter’s four large moons first discovered by Galileo in 1610.

Europa Clipper will take an indirect path to the Jovian system by first swinging around Mars in February 2025 for a gravity-assist boost in energy back toward Earth. Then in December 2026 the spacecraft will get a second gravity-assist boost around Earth to slingshot it on a high-velocity trajectory toward Jupiter.

Upon reaching Jupiter in April 2030, the Europa Clipper will enter an elongated looping orbit around the gas giant planet. It will take about a year making fine orbital adjustments to bring it close to Europa for its 49 fly-bys. Despite being radiation-hardened during its construction, the spacecraft must use a large orbit to avoid Jupiter’s intense magnetic field, where charged particles zip around the magnetosphere so fast they can fry the electronics if it lingers too long in that environment.

During Europa’s fly-bys of as low as 25 km above the surface it will use its sensor array of nearly a dozen instruments such as visible and infrared cameras and spectrometers to perform surface mapping, determine the thickness of the icy shell and characterize warmer areas.

Instruments will also analyze surface interactions, detect eruptions, determine the composition, geology, chemistry, and conduct radio gravity and magnetometer measurements. The ultimate goal is to determine whether the moon has characteristics that may be hospitable for life.

The robotic Europa Clipper is the largest scientific spacecraft ever built and launched by NASA at about 100 feet wide with its solar arrays deployed. Its takeoff weight is about 13,000 pounds, of which 6,000 is propellant.

FMI:  europa.nasa.gov/