Missions · Space Codex
Europa Clipper
NASA's largest planetary spacecraft is cruising to Jupiter to test whether Europa's hidden ocean could support life, using 49 close flybys from April 2030.
NASA's ocean-world explorer
At a glance
Key points
- Arrives at Jupiter in April 2030
- 49 Europa flybys planned
- Solar arrays span more than 30 m
Why fly by instead of orbit
Jupiter's radiation belts would destroy electronics parked at Europa. Clipper instead loops around Jupiter and dips past Europa repeatedly, each time sampling a new strip of the surface before retreating to safer distances.
What it will measure
Ice-penetrating radar will look for water pockets inside the shell, a magnetometer will confirm the ocean's salinity and depth, and mass spectrometers will taste any plume material or sputtered surface atoms.
The cruise so far
Clipper does not fly straight to Jupiter. On 1 March 2025 it swung about 884 km above Mars, and its radar was switched on during the approach as a first test. In late 2025 it turned its instruments on the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. In December 2026 it passes about 3,200 km from Earth. Together, the two flybys give it the extra energy it needs to reach Jupiter.
The tour at Jupiter
A burn of about six hours in April 2030 puts Clipper into orbit around Jupiter, with a Ganymede flyby during the manoeuvre. The first Europa flyby follows in spring 2031. One science campaign from May 2031 covers the side of Europa facing away from Jupiter; a second from May 2033 covers the side facing it. NASA lists September 2034 as a possible end, after which the spacecraft would be steered into Ganymede rather than left to crash on Europa.
A vault for the electronics
Instead of shielding every circuit board, engineers grouped the most sensitive electronics inside a vault with walls of titanium and aluminium about a centimetre thick. Combined with an orbit that spends only brief spells in the harshest regions, the vault keeps the accumulated dose low enough for the electronics to last through dozens of Europa passes.
What we still don't know
Whether the ocean has the chemical energy life would need, and how thick the ice shell really is: estimates range from about 15 to 25 km.
Missions
- 2024–
Europa Clipper
NASAEn routeLaunched 14 Oct 2024; Earth gravity assist 3 Dec 2026; arrives at Jupiter Apr 2030 for 49 Europa flybys.
Related entries
Sources
- NASA JPL: How NASA is protecting Europa Clipper from space radiation (opens in a new tab)
- NASA JPL: Europa Clipper uses Mars to go the distance (opens in a new tab)
- NASA Science: Europa Clipper (opens in a new tab)
- NASA Science: Europa Clipper mission timeline (opens in a new tab)
Last reviewed against these sources. Built from public NASA, ESA and JPL data; not affiliated with or endorsed by any agency.