Europa Clipper Mission Update

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. The project, flight system, and payload have completed their Critical Design Reviews, and the project has completed its System Integration Review, so that Europa Clipper is now formally in mission Phase D. The spacecraft and payload are currently under construction, as assembly, testing, and launch operations (ATLO) are well underway. Recent major milestones include the delivery to ATLO of the Propulsion Module and six instruments (E-THEMIS, Europa-UVS, EIS-WAC, PIMS, MASPEX, SUDA) and the assembly of the solar array wings. The integration of these instruments’ sensors on the spacecraft and its nadir-viewing deck and of the instrument electronics in vault has begun. The remaining instruments (ECM, EIS-NAC, MISE, REASON) are in mature stages of assembly and will be delivered in the next months. The science team is in the process of evaluating minor changes to the candidate tour, and is preparing a set of manuscripts describing the mission’s science and instruments for publication in the journal Space Science Reviews.