NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft successfully tested its radar instrument during a flyby of Mars in March, calibrating the camera and testing the radar ahead of its arrival at Jupiter’s moon Europa in 2030. The test, which used the planet’s gravitational pull to tweak the spacecraft’s trajectory, generated 60 gigabytes of data that started downloading to Earth in mid-May.
The radar instrument, REASON, employs two pairs of antennas sticking out from the spacecraft’s solar arrays. Scientists saw an opportunity to perform a dry run of the instrument on Mars due to decades of studying the Martian terrain and the spacecraft’s proximity during its flyby. The test involved bouncing radio waves off Mars at altitudes ranging from 3,100 miles to 550 miles above the surface.
According to NASA, the test was successful, with engineers and scientists expressing excitement over the results. The Europa Clipper will operate as close as 16 miles from the moon’s surface when it arrives in 2030. While the radar has been tested, concerns remain about how the spacecraft’s electronics will react to Jupiter’s harsh radiation environment.
The Europa Clipper will take a gravity assist from Earth in 2026 before arriving in the Jupiter system and conducting three main objectives: determining the thickness of the moon’s icy shell, investigating its composition, and characterizing its structure or physical properties.
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/europa_clipper_mars_flyby