As Europa Clipper nears October launch date, scientists anticipate groundbreaking results

Date:
Tue, 16 Apr 2024 19:12:08 +0000

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Later this year, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch from Launch Complex 39A at The post As Europa Clipper nears October launch date, scientists anticipate groundbreaking results appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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Later this year, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center with one of the most highly-anticipated and monumental planetary science missions of the decade Europa Clipper. The mission will see the spacecraft travel to the smallest of Jupiters four Galilean moons, Europa, to investigate the characteristics of the moon, including proving the existence of a subsurface ocean and the possibility of habitable conditions being contained within that ocean.

Europa Clipper is currently undergoing final construction and testing at
NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. Later this spring, testing will finish, and the spacecraft will be packaged up and shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where final launch preparations will begin ultimately culminating in the launch of the spacecraft in October. NSF recently had the opportunity to visit Europa Clipper in its clean room at
JPLs Spacecraft Assembly Facility and ask Cynthia Phillips, project staff scientist at JPL, about the mission and the current state of progress toward launch.



While construction of Europa Clipper may have started just a few years ago, planning for the mission and the design of the spacecraft started over a decade ago, in 2013, when the National Research Council recommended a mission to Europa, and funds were authorized for the formulation of mission plans and design. In 2017, the mission moved into the preliminary design phase, which continued into 2019. The spacecraft then moved into final design and fabrication, and in March 2022, the mission moved into the assembly, testing, and launch phase, and spacecraft construction officially began.

Since then, the spacecrafts main body and instruments have been constructed and mated together at JPL, with the construction of the main body of the spacecraft being completed in June 2022. By Jan. 30, 2024, all nine of Europa Clippers instruments had been mated to the main body of the spacecraft. Up-close image of Europa Clipper in its clean room at JPL. Note the instruments located around the body of the spacecraft. (Credit: Jack Beyer
for NSF)

The cameras of Europa Clipper are the Europa Imaging System (EIS) and Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS). For spectroscopy, the spacecraft will use its Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) and Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE) instruments. For measuring the plasma and magnetic field around Europa, the Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM) Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS) instruments will be used. To analyze the moons gravity, the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) instrument will be used. Lastly, for chemical analysis, Europa Clipper will use the Mass Spectrometer for Planetary
Exploration/Europa (MASPEX) and Surface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) instruments.

Following the completion of construction, the spacecraft underwent several rounds of testing. In March, it was confirmed that all testing had been successful and that the spacecraft was on track for an on-time delivery to
the Kennedy Space Center and, ultimately, launch. The missions launch window opens on Oct. 10. See Also Europa Clipper Updates Space Science Section NSF Store Click here to Join L2

Assuming a successful delivery to Florida and an on-time launch, Europa Clipper is set to arrive at Jupiter in 2030, with the spacecraft performing its orbital insertion burn on April 11, 2030. During the time between launch and its arrival at Jupiter, the spacecraft will perform flybys of Earth and Mars maneuvers called gravity assists that help alter the spacecrafts speed and trajectory to Jupiter in an effort to preserve spacecraft fuel. While in orbit around Jupiter, the spacecraft will perform as many as 45 to 50 flybys of Europa, even flying as close as 25 kilometers from the moons smooth, icy surface.

Following these first 45-50 flybys, and assuming the mission has progressed without a hitch, would a mission extension be possible? If so, what new imagery of the surface could be gathered?

As of right now, we have about 50 flybys planned and mapped out. Well first have multiple flybys of the anti-Jupiter hemisphere (the side of Europa that faces away from Jupiter), and then well have multiple flybys of the sub-Jupiter hemisphere. After that, if were so lucky as to have a spacecraft thats still operating and be granted an extended mission, then yeah, I
imagine that as were going through the images that we take of both the sub-Jupiter and the anti-Jupiter hemisphere during the prime mission, I imagine were going to find all sorts of just intriguing features that, you know, we have no idea even exist now, just because we havent seen the surface at this resolution. So, I hope we will be able to get more and more coverage of these features (with an extended mission), Phillips said. Europa Clippers MISE spectrometer attached to the body of the spacecraft. (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

With this imagery and the several camera instruments onboard Europa Clipper, teams are hoping to confirm the existence of a potential subsurface ocean on Europa and, furthermore, the potential existence of life within this ocean. Life has long been theorized to exist on Europa if the moon indeed harbors a subsurface ocean, but observations from previous spacecraft like Juno and Galileo have only been able to provide evidence for its existence not prove it. In fact, the possibility of this subsurface ocean and life is one of the main driving factors behind the creation of the mission and why it continues to receive support and funding from NASA and other agencies.

The whole reason why were going to Jupiter, the reason why were building Europa Clipper, is that we know that Europas surface is covered with ice, but below that ice is this layer of liquid water. And we think, from observations taken by the Galileo spacecraft, that theres actually more water there than all of Earths oceans combined. So were talking about a vast ocean of liquid water. Its probably a little bit less salty than Earths oceans and we think that its been there over the age of the solar system were talking four billion years. Its because of this liquid water and the fact that its so stable and its been there for so long that Europa, in my opinion, is one of the best places for life to exist in our solar system beyond the Earth. And
so thats really the impetus of the whole Europa Clipper mission is to study the habitability of Europa, Phillips explained.

The mission is not a life detection mission per se. If we find giant whale breaching zones, okay, we found one. But more likely, the missions actual goals are to study the habitability of Europa. So that means, are there
places below the surface of Europa that could support life, that could be habitable? And then itll take a future mission to go back and maybe actually land on the surface or maybe even drill down and get into that ocean to actually say, Okay, is Europa actually inhabited?' Thanks to @NASAJPL for hosting media yesterday! We got to see @EuropaClipper in the cleanroom before it is transported to Florida for launch in October. It was truly surreal to stand next to a spacecraft that will be orbiting Jupiter in just a few years time. @NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/tvMDi2A0Pg

Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer) April 12, 2024



So, what happens if Europa Clipper can prove the existence of this ocean and provide substantial evidence for the existence of life on the moon? What are the next steps, and would NASA and other space agencies investigate a future Europa lander?

One of the things that I worked on in addition to Europa Clipper was a Europa lander mission concept, which, unfortunately, was not chosen to go forward in the latest decadal survey. One of the things that came out of that project, though, is this reconnaissance focus group, and as part of this focus group, we want to make sure that Europa Clipper collects the right kind of datasets so that a future mission that lands on Europa can use that data to land. So one of the things that weve done is weve looked at the trajectory that Europa Clipper will fly and the details of each of the close flybys, and theres only a handful of those that actually meet our criteria for what we think a future mission will need to have to perform a landing. And those are things like resolution, but also viewing geometry and illumination angle, which is based on our experience with landing on places like Mars. So since well be using terrain relative navigation and hazard avoidance and stuff like that,
whatever dataset we get from Europa Clipper is the dataset that will be used to help pick a landing site for a future landing mission, said Phillips

Even if that landing mission is 20 or 30 years off in the future, youre going to want to make sure that we have that dataset in the bag. Thats something well make sure that Europa Clipper does, which is to do the best job it can
in collecting a reconnaissance data set for future use.



Europa Clipper will undoubtedly be one of the most anticipated and important missions of this decade and the decades to come. The mission will be
hopefully the first of many future missions to the outer solar system that will attempt to confirm the habitability of several different moons around Jupiter and Saturn. Operating alongside Europa Clipper at Jupiter will be
ESAs Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, more commonly known as JUICE, which plans to characterize not just Europa but the other icy moons of Jupiter, Ganymede and Callisto. Together, the two missions will provide scientists with more data and imagery than any other icy moons in our solar system and will allow for the creation of new missions and concepts to travel further into the solar system to search for life.

After over a decade of hard work and problem-solving, were so proud to show the nearly complete Europa Clipper spacecraft to the world. As critical components came in from institutions across the globe, its been exciting to see parts become a greater whole. We cant wait to get this spacecraft to the Jupiter system, said Europa Clipper project manager Jordan Evans of JPL.

(Lead image: A scientist speaks to a member of the media in front of Europa Clipper at JPLs Spacecraft Assembly Facility. Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)



The post As Europa Clipper nears October launch date, scientists anticipate groundbreaking results appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/04/ec-jpl-interview/


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