Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper

Artist's rendering of the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Mission type	Europa reconnaissance
Operator	NASA
Website	jpl.nasa.gov
Mission duration	Cruise: 1.9 years
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Power	600 W from solar cells
Start of mission
Launch date	TBD (TBD)
Rocket	SLS (Block IB)
Jupiter orbiter
Orbits	45
Instruments PIMS Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding ICEMAG Interior Characterization of Europa using Magnetometry MISE Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa EIS Europa Imaging System REASON Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface E-THEMIS Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System MASPEX MAss SPectrometer for Planetary EXploration/Europa UVS Ultraviolet Spectrograph/Europa SUDA SUrface Dust Mass Analyzer

Europa Clipper is an interplanetary mission in development by NASA comprising an orbiter and a lander. Set for a launch in the 2020s (around 2022), the spacecraft are being developed to study the Galilean moon Europa through a lander and a series of flybys while in orbit around Jupiter. Until March 7, 2017, the mission was developed under the name Europa Multiple Flyby Mission.

The mission is a follow-up to studies made by the Galileo spacecraft during its eight years in Jupiter orbit, which indicated the existence of a subsurface ocean underneath Europa. 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 injected into orbit around Europa. However, due to the strong impact of radiation from Jupiter's magnetosphere in Europan orbit, it was decided that it would be safer to inject a spacecraft into an orbit around Jupiter and make several close flybys of the moon instead. The mission has been referred to as the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission, and began as a joint investigation between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Applied Physics Laboratory.

The mission will complement ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, which will fly-by Europa twice and Callisto multiple times before moving into orbit around Ganymede. Launching around the same time as the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer will have a cruise phase some three times as long.

The Europa Clipper orbiter will be built and manufactured with a scientific payload of nine instruments, contributed by the JPL, APL, Southwest Research Institute, University of Texas, Arizona State University and University of Colorado Boulder.