EGU22-6052
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6052
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Europa Clipper Mission Update

Haje Korth1, Robert Pappalardo2, Kate Craft1, Ingrid Daubar2, Hamish Hay2, Sam Howell2, Rachel Klima1, Erin Leonard2, Alexandra Matiella Novak1, Divya Persaud2, and Cynthia Phillips2
Haje Korth et al.
  • 1Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States of America (haje.korth@jhuapl.edu)
  • 2Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States of America

With a launch readiness date of late 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper will set out on a journey to explore the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. At the beginning of the next decade, the spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, flying by Europa more than 40 times over a four-year period to observe this moon’s ice shell and ocean, study its composition, investigate its geology, and search for and characterize any current activity. The mission’s science objectives will be accomplished using a highly capable suite of remote-sensing and in-situ instruments. The remote sensing payload consists of the Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS), the Europa Imaging System (EIS), the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE), the Europa Thermal Imaging System (E-THEMIS), and the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON). The in-situ instruments comprise the Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM), the Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS), the SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA), and the MAss Spectrometer for Planetary Exploration (MASPEX). Gravity and radio science will be achieved using the spacecraft's telecommunication system, and valuable scientific data will be acquired by the spacecraft’s radiation monitoring system. Major milestones from the past year include selection of a launch vehicle and launch readiness date by NASA, evaluation of candidate tours by the science team, and preparations for the cruise and operational phases of the mission. The project, flight system, and payload have completed their Critical Design Reviews, and the mission has recently completed its System Integration Review. Spacecraft subsystems and payload are actively being developed, and assembly, test, and launch operations are expected to begin in March 2022. In the meantime, the science team is preparing a set of manuscripts describing the mission science and the instruments that enable these investigations for publication in the journal Space Science Reviews.

How to cite: Korth, H., Pappalardo, R., Craft, K., Daubar, I., Hay, H., Howell, S., Klima, R., Leonard, E., Matiella Novak, A., Persaud, D., and Phillips, C.: Europa Clipper Mission Update, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6052, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6052, 2022.