14 Facts About Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper is an interplanetary mission in development by NASA comprising an orbiter.

Europa Clipper will perform follow-up studies to those made by the Galileo spacecraft during its eight years in Jupiter orbit, which indicated the existence of a subsurface ocean underneath Europa's ice crust.

Europa Clipper has been identified as one of the locations in the Solar System that could possibly harbor microbial extraterrestrial life.

Mission to Europa Clipper was recommended by the National Research Council in 2013.

Goals of Europa Clipper are to explore Europa, investigate its habitability and aid in the selection of a landing site for the future Europa Lander.

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Therefore, another key limiting factor on science for a Europa Clipper orbiter is the time available to return data to Earth.

Europa Clipper mission is equipped with a sophisticated suite of 9 instruments to study Europa's interior and ocean, geology, chemistry, and habitability.

The principal investigator Kurt Retherford was part of a group that discovered plumes erupting from Europa Clipper while using the Hubble Space Telescope in the UV spectrum.

Interior Characterization of Europa Clipper using Magnetometry was cancelled due to cost overruns.

SUrface Dust Analyzer is a mass spectrometer that will measure the composition of small solid particles ejected from Europa Clipper, providing the opportunity to directly sample the surface and potential plumes on low-altitude flybys.

Europa Clipper mission considered an extra mass of about 250 kilograms to carry an additional flight element.

The Europa Clipper would have relayed signals from the nanosatellites back to Earth.

European proposal, the Europa Clipper Tomography Probe, was a concept for an independent powered spacecraft equipped with a magnetometer that would orbit Europa Clipper on a polar orbit for at least six months.

Congress had originally mandated that Europa Clipper be launched on NASA's Space Launch System super heavy-lift launch vehicle, but NASA had requested that other vehicles be allowed to launch the spacecraft due to a foreseen lack of available SLS vehicles.