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Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper
Artist's rendering of the Europa Clipper spacecraft
NamesEuropa Multiple Flyby Mission
Mission typeEuropa reconnaissance
OperatorNASA
COSPAR ID2024-182A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.61507Edit this on Wikidata
Websiteeuropa.nasa.gov
Mission durationCruise: 5.5 years[1][2]
Science phase: 4 years
Elapsed: 34 days, 6 hours, 25 minutes
Spacecraft properties
ManufacturerJet Propulsion Laboratory
Launch mass6,065 kg (13,371 lb),[3][4][5] including 2,750 kg (6,060 lb) propellant[6]
Dry mass3,241 kg (7,145 lb)[7]
Payload mass352 kg (776 lb)
DimensionsHeight: 6 m (20 ft)
Solar panel span: 22 m (72 ft)[4]
Power600 watts from solar panels[8]
Start of mission
Launch dateOctober 14, 2024, 16:06:00 (2024-10-14UTC16:06Z) UTC (12:06 p.m. EDT)
RocketFalcon Heavy Block 5[9]
Launch siteKennedy, LC-39A
ContractorSpaceX
Flyby of Mars (gravity assist)
Closest approachMarch 1, 2025[10]
Flyby of Earth (gravity assist)
Closest approachDecember 3, 2026[11]
Jupiter orbiter
Orbital insertionApril 11, 2030 (first closest approach to Europa)[12]
Orbits45[4][13]

Europa Clipper mission patch
Large Strategic Science Missions
Planetary Science Division

Europa Clipper (previously known as Europa Multiple Flyby Mission) is a space probe developed by NASA to study Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter. It was launched on October 14, 2024.[15] The spacecraft will use gravity assists from Mars on March 1, 2025,[10] and Earth on December 3, 2026,[11] before arriving at Europa in April 2030.[16] The spacecraft will then perform a series of flybys of Europa while in orbit around Jupiter.[17][18]

Europa Clipper is designed to follow up on evidence for a subsurface ocean underneath Europa's ice crust, found using the Galileo spacecraft which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Plans to send a spacecraft to Europa were initially conceived with projects such as Europa Orbiter and Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, in which a spacecraft would be inserted into orbit around Europa. However, due to the adverse effects of radiation from the magnetosphere of Jupiter in Europa orbit, it was decided that it would be safer to insert a spacecraft into an elliptical orbit around Jupiter and make 44 close flybys of the moon instead. The Europa Clipper spacecraft is larger than any other used for previous NASA planetary missions.[19]

Europa Clipper complements the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, launched in 2023, which will attempt to fly past Europa twice and Callisto multiple times before moving into orbit around Ganymede.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Leone was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Phillips 2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Foust, Jeff (January 29, 2021). "NASA seeks input on Europa Clipper launch options". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on October 10, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Europa Clipper Mission. Archived March 18, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Europa Clipper home page at NASA. Retrieved October 2, 2019 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ^ Goldstein, Barry; Kastner, Jason (March 2018). "Weigh Your Options Carefully" (PDF). The Sextant – Europa Clipper Newsletter. Vol. 2, no. 1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. p. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2018. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ^ "Johns Hopkins APL Delivers Propulsion Module for NASA Mission to Europa | Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory". www.jhuapl.edu. Retrieved May 11, 2024.
  7. ^ Overview | Mission – NASA's Europa Clipper Archived March 18, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Europa Clipper home page at NASA. Retrieved March 13, 2024 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  8. ^ Goldstein, Barry; Pappalardo, Robert (February 19, 2015). "Europa Clipper Update" (PDF). Outer Planets Assessment Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  9. ^ Potter, Sean (July 23, 2021). "NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for the Europa Clipper Mission" (Press release). NASA. Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  10. ^ a b "Eyes on the Solar System - NASA/JPL".
  11. ^ a b "Eyes on the Solar System - NASA/JPL".
  12. ^ "Eyes on the Solar System - NASA/JPL".
  13. ^ "All Systems Go for NASA's Mission to Jupiter Moon Europa" (Press release). NASA. June 17, 2015. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2019. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  14. ^ Thompson, Jay R. (2022). "Instruments". Europa Clipper. NASA. Archived from the original on May 24, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2022.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  15. ^ "NASA's Europa Clipper launches aboard SpaceX rocket, bound for Jupiter's icy ocean moon". Los Angeles Times. October 14, 2024. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  16. ^ Foust, Jeff (February 10, 2021). "NASA to use commercial launch vehicle for Europa Clipper". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  17. ^ Clark, Stuart (March 5, 2023). "'It's like finding needles in a haystack': the mission to discover if Jupiter's moons support life". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  18. ^ King, Lucinda; Conversation, The. "If life exists on Jupiter's moon Europa, scientists might soon be able to detect it". phys.org. Archived from the original on April 8, 2024. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  19. ^ "How our vision of Europa's habitability is changing". April 19, 2024. Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved April 24, 2024.

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