Headed to Jupiter’s moon Europa, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is operating without a hitch and will reach Mars in just three months for a gravity assist.
Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, NASA’s Europa Clipper is headed to Jupiter’s moon Europa to assess its potential for life. The spacecraft has deployed critical instruments and will utilize Mars and Earth for gravity assists to speed its journey, targeting arrival by 2030.
Journey to Europa
NASA’s Europa Clipper, launched on October 14, is already almost 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) from Earth on its journey to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Two of its scientific instruments have successfully deployed hardware that will remain extended throughout its decade-long mission, covering both the journey to Jupiter and its primary exploration phase.
Carried into space by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the spacecraft has escaped Earth’s gravity and is now traveling at an impressive speed of 22 miles per second (35 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun.
Mission Milestones
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. It will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) to arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and in 2031 will begin a series of 49 flybys, using a suite of instruments to gather data that will tell scientists if the icy moon and its internal ocean have the conditions needed to harbor life.
For now, the information mission teams are receiving from the spacecraft is strictly engineering data (the science will come later), telling them how the hardware is operating. Things are looking good. The team has a checklist of actions the spacecraft needs to take as it travels deeper into space. Here’s a peek:
Key Deployments
Shortly after launch, the spacecraft deployed its massive solar arrays, which extend the length of a basketball court. Next on the list was the magnetometer’s boom, which uncoiled from a canister mounted on the spacecraft body, extending a full 28 feet (8.5 meters).
To confirm that all went well with the boom deployment, the team relied on data from the magnetometer’s three sensors. Once the spacecraft is at Jupiter, these sensors will measure the magnetic field around Europa, both confirming the presence of the ocean thought to be under the moon’s icy crust and telling scientists about its depth and salinity.
This animation shows how the boom of Europa Clipper’s magnetometer deployed — while the spacecraft was in flight — to its full length of 28 feet (8.5 meters). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Radar Deployment
After the magnetometer, the spacecraft deployed several antennas for the radar instrument. Now extending crosswise from the solar arrays, the four high-frequency antennas form what look like two long poles, each measuring 57.7 feet (17.6 meters) long. Eight rectangular very-high-frequency antennas, each 9 feet (2.76 meters) long, were also deployed — two on the two solar arrays.
“It’s an exciting time on the spacecraft, getting these key deployments done,” said Europa Clipper project manager Jordan Evans of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Most of what the team is focusing on now is understanding the small, interesting things in the data that help them understand the behavior of the spacecraft on a deeper level. That’s really good to see.”
Instrument Checkout
The remaining seven instruments will be powered on and off through December and January so that engineers can check their health. Several instruments, including the visible imager and the gas and dust mass spectrometers, will keep their protective covers closed for the next three or so years to guard against potential damage from the Sun during Europa Clipper’s time in the inner solar system.
Mars-Bound
Once all the instruments and engineering subsystems have been checked out, mission teams will shift their focus to Mars. On March 1, 2025, Europa Clipper will reach Mars’ orbit and begin to loop around the Red Planet, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed. (This effect is similar to how a ball thrown at a moving train will bounce off the train in another direction at a higher speed.) Mission navigators already have completed one trajectory correction maneuver, as planned, to get the spacecraft on the precise course.
At Mars, scientists plan to turn on the spacecraft’s thermal imager to capture multicolored images of Mars as a test operation. They also plan to collect data with the radar instrument so engineers can be sure it’s operating as expected.
The spacecraft will perform another gravity assist in December 2026, swooping by Earth before making the remainder of the long journey to the Jupiter system. At that time, the magnetometer will measure Earth’s magnetic field, calibrating the instrument.
More About Europa Clipper
The Europa Clipper is NASA’s ambitious mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, a prime candidate for harboring conditions suitable for life. Its primary objectives are to study the thickness of Europa’s icy shell and its interaction with the ocean beneath, analyze the moon’s composition, and characterize its geology. By investigating these factors, the mission aims to assess Europa’s potential as a habitable world beyond Earth.
The mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Langley Research Center. JPL leads the mission development, while APL designed the spacecraft body. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall oversees program management, and NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center managed the launch. The Europa Clipper represents a global effort to advance our understanding of astrobiological possibilities within our solar system.
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