The discovery of Jupiter’s four largest moons – Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa – by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610 revolutionized our understanding of the universe. Now, over 400 years later, Europa is poised to reshape our knowledge of the cosmos once again with the arrival of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.
The Galileo mission of the 1990s already found evidence of a subsurface saltwater ocean and organic compounds on Europa, suggesting it may be habitable. However, the Europa Clipper mission will study the moon in detail to determine its habitability. Launched in October 2024 from the Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter’s destination in five years.
To overcome Jupiter’s harsh radiation environment, the engineering team designed a specially shielded vault and an elliptical looping flight path. The Europa Clipper will conduct flybys of Europa, starting in 2031, which will take it within 16 miles of the surface.
The spacecraft is equipped with nine scientific instruments, including the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding (REASON), to study Europa’s core, interior, ocean, ice shell, atmosphere, and surrounding environment. Other instruments include the Mass Spectrometer for Planetary Exploration/Europa (MASPEX) and the Surface Dust Analyser (SUDA).
The mission aims to answer whether Europa is habitable and potentially hosts life beyond Earth. The discoveries will complement data from the ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, which explores Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede.
Source: https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/in-depth/europa-clipper-on-a-mission-to-probe-an-alien-water-world