Europa Clipper

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Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper (previously known as the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission) is a mission to send a space probe developed by NASA to study Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter. Launched by a Falcon Heavy on October 14, 2024, the probe is planned to enter Jupiter orbit in April 2030 and conduct a series of flybys of Europa from March 2031. Europa Clipper is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched by NASA. The mission used a gravity assist from Mars in March 2025, and will use an assist from Earth in December 2026. Europa Clipper will investigate the subsurface ocean below Europa's ice crust, found by the Galileo spacecraft which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Cancelled Europa missions Europa Orbiter and Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter called for orbiting the moon. However, Europa's vicinity experiences extreme radiation, being deep within the magnetosphere of Jupiter. Thus Europa Clipper will enter an elliptical orbit around Jupiter via a gravity assist from Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede, and make 49 close flybys of the moon. At its mission end, planned for 2034 or later, it will be intentionally crashed, likely into Ganymede, to prevent forward contamination of Europa. The orbiter aims to analyze the induced magnetic field around Europa. Its Surface Dust Analyzer mass spectrometer aims to detect and directly sample the subsurface ocean via its water vapor plume ejecta from cryovolcanoes; it is capable of identifying a single bacterium. The mission's name is a reference to the lightweight, fast clipper ships of the 19th century that routinely plied trade routes, since the spacecraft will pass by Europa at a rapid cadence, as frequently as every two weeks. The mission patch, which depicts a sailing ship, references the moniker. Europa Clipper complements the ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, launched in 2023, which will attempt to fly past Europa twice and Callisto multiple times before moving into orbit around Ganymede.

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• Europa Clipper

  Europa Clipper (previously known as the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission) is a mission to send a space probe developed by NASA to study Europa "Europa (moon)"), a Galilean moon of Jupiter. Launched by a Falcon Heavy on October 14, 2024, the probe is planned to enter Jupiter orbit in April 2030 and conduct a series of flybys "Flyby (spaceflight)") of Europa from March 2031. Europa Clipper is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched by NASA. The mission used a gravity assist from Mars in March 2025, and will use an assist from Earth in December 2026. [...] Europa Clipper was originally scheduled to launch on October 10, 2024, two days after a Falcon 9 launched the ESA's Hera "Hera (space mission)") to 65803 Didymos from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on a similar interplanetary trajectory. However, this launch attempt was scrubbed due to Hurricane Milton making landfall in Florida the previous day, resulting in the launch being finalized for several days later. Europa Clipper was launched on October 14, 2024, at 12:06 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon Heavy. The rocket's boosters and first stage were both expended as a result of the spacecraft's mass and trajectory; the boosters were previously flown five times (including on the launch of Psyche "Psyche (spacecraft)") for NASA and an X-37B for [...] The mission's name is a reference to the lightweight, fast clipper ships of the 19th century that routinely plied trade routes, since the spacecraft will pass by Europa at a rapid cadence, as frequently as every two weeks. The mission patch, which depicts a sailing ship, references the moniker. Europa Clipper complements the ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, launched in 2023, which will attempt to fly past Europa twice and Callisto "Callisto (moon)") multiple times before moving into orbit around Ganymede "Ganymede (moon)"). ## History [edit] ### Early proposals and Galileo discoveries [edit]

• Europa Clipper - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

  NASA’s Europa Clipper is a Flagship mission to study Jupiter’s moon Europa to investigate whether the moon could have conditions suitable for life. The orbiter will perform dozens of close flybys of Europa, gathering detailed measurements to determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life. Europa Clipper will orbit around Jupiter, and over its 4 year mission, it will make nearly 50 flybys of Europa. Its closest-approach will reach altitudes as low as 25 kilometers (16 miles) above the surface, zooming over a different location during each flyby to observe nearly the entire moon. Mission Class: Mission Status: LASP Roles: Science Target: Mission Focus: Primary Mission Site:

• Europa Clipper | Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

  ## Main Navigation ## Footer Artist's rendering of Europa Clipper Artist's rendering of Europa Clipper # Europa Clipper ## Breadcrumb ##### Our Contribution ## A Detailed Look at Europa NASA’s Europa Clipper is the first space mission dedicated to conducting a detailed study of an ocean world—a world that likely harbors a salty ocean with twice as much water as Earth beneath its icy crust. Targeting Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, the mission aims to study this world’s atmosphere, surface, and interior to understand whether its water, chemistry, and energy could support life. ### Related Areas of Impact ### Mission Area ## The Mission [...] Europa Clipper will be outfitted with nine instruments, enclosed in an aluminum-titanium vault to shield them from Jupiter’s radiation. These instruments include APL-built cameras that will capture parts of Europa in unprecedented resolution and provide 3D images of the surface; spectrometers — including one built by APL — that will determine the chemical composition of both the surface and Europa’s thin atmosphere; an ice-penetrating radar instrument to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell; and a magnetometer that will help determine how deep and salty Europa’s subsurface ocean is. Europa Clipper is also equipped with an APL-built charged particle detector, which will investigate the interactions between Europa and particles in Jupiter’s magnetosphere that can alter the moon’s [...] ### Mission Area ## The Mission NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, a partnership between APL and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will perform more than 40 close flybys of Europa, zipping from about 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) to as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) above the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon. These flybys will provide access to a diverse and widely distributed set of geologic terrains, providing data to constrain and test geophysical and geochemical models of the ice shell and ocean.

• Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean Moon (Mission Overview) | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

  JPL Logo JPL Logo Solar System. # Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean Moon (Mission Overview) Jet Propulsion Laboratory Sept. 17, 2024 NASA’s Europa Clipper is the first mission dedicated to studying Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, one of the most promising places in our solar system to find an environment suitable for life outside of Earth. Evidence suggests that beneath Europa’s frozen surface is a global ocean of water, and scientists want to find out if there’s also the right chemistry and energy to sustain life.

• Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean Moon (Mission Overview)

  # Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean Moon (Mission Overview) ## NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1240000 subscribers 8792 likes ### Description 372000 views Posted: 17 Sep 2024 NASA’s Europa Clipper is the first mission dedicated to studying Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, one of the most promising places in our solar system to find an environment suitable for life outside of Earth. Evidence suggests that beneath Europa’s frozen surface is a global ocean of water, and scientists want to find out if there’s also the right chemistry and energy to sustain life. [...] Europa Clipper is equipped with nine instruments and a gravity experiment. It will orbit Jupiter and make 49 flybys of Europa, gathering data to help scientists understand the moon’s geology, composition, and interior. While not a life-detection mission, Europa Clipper will answer key questions about the moon’s potential habitability. Europa Clipper is expected to launch in October 2024 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and arrive at Jupiter in 2030. For more information on the mission go to: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC/APL [...] are measuring the environment around them, like sniffing gasses or dust. Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built f or a planetary mission. It weighs 13,000 pounds – six and a half tons. That's like the size of a huge African elephant. And the solar arrays are massive. If you put the solar arrays at the toes of the Statue of Liberty, the other end of the arrays would come up to the Statue of Liberty’s crown. So not only are they big, these things are technological marvels. They are being bathed in radiation all the time, and they have to survive the entire mission like that. Jupiter’s radiation environment is intense. And Europa sits in the worst part of that environment. Jupiter acts like a giant particle accelerator. There are charged particles

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