Assessing Europa Clipper’s Response to JUICE–Clipper Synergistic Science Opportunities in the Jupiter System

NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) missions are each currently bound to explore the Jupiter system during overlapping time periods in the early 2030s. Europa Clipper is scheduled to arrive in orbit around Jupiter in April 2030, followed by JUICE’s arrival in July 2031. While each mission was designed to pursue its own set of independently compelling science objectives, the temporal and spatial proximity of these two well-instrumented spacecraft presents an unprecedented opportunity to perform coordinated or complementary scientific observations across the Jovian system. The scientific return from such joint activities has the potential to exceed significantly the sum of each mission’s individual efforts.
Recognizing this potential, a JUICE–Clipper Steering Committee (JCSC) was formed jointly by the two mission teams to identify and evaluate possible synergistic science opportunities. This committee includes members from both missions, and it has drawn on science team input from multiple joint workshops, as well as the Science Traceability Matrix developed for the earlier Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) study. The JCSC recently provided a set of recommendations to the two mission teams, describing science themes and observation strategies that could benefit from joint implementation. The recommendations for the orbital (tour) period include time-dependent and space-dependent coordinated measurements of Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, Jupiter’s magnetosphere and atmosphere, the ring system, and small satellites. 
The next step is for each mission to consider which of the proposed activities may be realistically implementable within the scope of its mission constraints. Within the Europa Clipper project, which currently focuses on Europa science only, a structured internal assessment is currently underway to evaluate which synergistic science opportunities could potentially align with the mission’s priorities, resources, and operational design.
The Europa Clipper mission, launched in October 2024, is guided by the mission's goal of assessing the habitability of Europa. The mission’s three science objectives are to characterize the ice shell and subsurface structure, characterize the composition and chemistry of the surface and exosphere, and elucidate geological activity and recent surface processes; cross-cutting these is to search for and characterize current activity such as plumes and thermal anomalies. The spacecraft will conduct nearly 50 flybys of Europa at altitudes as low as 25 km over a four-year nominal tour, while also executing opportunistic flybys of Ganymede and Callisto. Europa Clipper carries a sophisticated suite of nine science instruments—spanning imaging, spectroscopy, magnetometry, radar sounding, dust analysis, and mass spectrometry—as well as gravity and radio science supported by the telecommunications system.
Because the mission is complex and constrained by the high-radiation environment of Jupiter, the incorporation of new science activities, even those of high potential value, must be approached with careful evaluation of resource and cost feasibility. Accordingly, Europa Clipper’s internal response to the JCSC recommendations is being developed through a collaborative, phased process led by the Project Scientist.
In the first phase of this process, each of Europa Clipper’s ten Investigation Teams was asked to review the JCSC’s Orbital Report and provide instrument-specific assessments of the scientific value, technical feasibility, and operational implications of the proposed joint observations, and to identify any additional key opportunities that may warrant consideration. These assessments addressed instrument-specific observation opportunities and constraints.
In the second phase, Europa Clipper’s three Objective-based Thematic Working Groups (Interior, Composition, and Geology) were tasked with synthesizing the instrument-level inputs and identifying which opportunities offer the most compelling science return, considering associated constraints. This cross-disciplinary analysis ensures that the evaluation is anchored in integrated science value.
This process also includes coordination with Europa Clipper’s Mission System team, to evaluate the technical and operational feasibility of candidate observations. The Mission System team is advising on resource availability and limitations in areas such as power, spacecraft pointing and slewing capabilities, BDS (bulk data storage) capacity, and downlink availability. Because Europa Clipper operates in a radiation-intense environment and executes carefully choreographed flybys, even small changes to the mission plan could have significant impacts on spacecraft operations, science acquisition, and data return. As such, potential synergistic activities must be thoroughly vetted to ensure they do not compromise the mission’s primary objective or over-extend mission resources.
With this mission-internal assessment, the Project Scientist and Deputy Project Scientists—working in consultation with the JCSC Facilitator—will prepare a recommended package of synergistic observations that Europa Clipper may be able to support. This recommendation will be presented to the full Science Team for discussion and refinement, ensuring that it reflects both broad consensus and careful prioritization. The final recommended set of activities will be shaped by two overarching criteria: (1) scientific significance in the context of Europa Clipper’s science objectives and capabilities, and (2) simplicity and realism of implementation within the mission’s resource envelope.
By the time of the joint EPSC/DPS 2025 meeting, this process is expected to be substantially complete. At the EPSC/DPS 2025 meeting, we will present the results of Europa Clipper’s internal evaluation, including a summary of which synergistic science opportunities have been prioritized for potential implementation. We will also describe the science and operations constraints considered in the decision-making framework, and the next steps that may follow.
This presentation aims to inform the planetary science community of Europa Clipper’s strategy for evaluating and potentially implementing cross-mission science opportunities. It is intended to support transparency and demonstrate the mission’s commitment to maximizing scientific return while preserving its primary goal and the integrity of its three science objectives. This work complements the separate report of the JUICE–Europa Clipper Steering Committee. We note that at present, no formal agreements or commitments exist between NASA and ESA regarding the implementation of joint science activities.
Government support acknowledged. Writing assisted by ChatGPT 4o.