Search for signs of life on Jupiter’s moon Europa

Abstract

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission — named after nineteenth-century clipper ships — is now successfully on its way to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa after its launch on 14 October 2024. Europa is believed to have an ocean beneath its icy surface, possibly harbouring the right conditions for life. To investigate, the spacecraft will conduct nearly 50 close fly-bys of Europa to collect data. One of the mission’s biggest challenges is Jupiter’s intense radiation, which can damage the spacecraft’s electronic systems over time. To counter this, Europa Clipper’s electronics are shielded in a specially designed vault made from titanium and aluminium — a strategy first used in NASA’s Juno mission, which has been studying Jupiter since 2016. Like Juno, which was the first solar-powered spacecraft designed by NASA to venture so far from the sun, Europa Clipper relies on multi-junction gallium arsenide solar arrays to generate power in the low-light environment around Jupiter. These solar arrays are important for meeting the spacecraft’s power demands, as it needs to support and power a wide range of investigative instruments in addition to essential onboard operations. The spacecraft aims to reach Europa by 2030, and scientists hope that this mission will inform on the habitability of ocean worlds beyond Earth.