Europa Clipper

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Europa Clipper is NASA's mission to one of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth: Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter that almost certainly hides a deep, salty ocean beneath its frozen shell — an ocean that may hold twice as much water as all of Earth's. Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission itself; its job is to answer a prior question — is Europa actually habitable? — by measuring the ocean, the ice and the chemistry that life would need. Launched on 14 October 2024, the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission is cruising toward Jupiter, where it will arrive in 2030. Rather than orbit Europa directly, where Jupiter's intense radiation would quickly destroy its electronics, the spacecraft will loop around Jupiter and dart in for around fifty close flybys of the moon, dashing through the radiation and retreating to safety between passes. Its instruments will map Europa's surface, sound the thickness of its ice with radar, sample any plumes of water vapour venting into space, and analyse the dust and gas around the moon. Europa Clipper carries enormous solar arrays to gather the feeble sunlight so far from the Sun, and bears a poignant touch: a metal plate engraved with a poem and the names of millions of people who signed up to send them to another world. The spacecraft is currently en route to Jupiter.

1. 2024Launch toward EuropaLaunch

   NASA's largest planetary spacecraft sets off for Jupiter on a Falcon Heavy.

2. 2025Mars gravity assistFlyby

   Europa Clipper swings past Mars to bend its trajectory toward Jupiter.

3. 2030Arrival at Jupiter (planned)Arrival

   The spacecraft is planned to reach Jupiter and begin looping in for close flybys of Europa.

4. 2031Close flybys of Europa (planned)Milestone

   Clipper is to make ~50 close passes to probe Europa's hidden ocean and icy shell.

Images

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