Europa Clipper Mission: Preliminary Design Report

Abstract

Europa, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter, is believed to be one of the best places in the solar system to look for extant life beyond Earth. Exploring Europa to investigate its habitability is the goal of the Europa Clipper mission. The Europa Clipper mission envisions sending a flight system, consisting of a spacecraft equipped with a payload of NASA-selected scientific instruments, to execute numerous flybys of Europa while in Jupiter orbit. A key challenge is that the flight system must survive and operate in the intense Jovian radiation environment, which is especially harsh at Europa. The spacecraft is planned for launch no earlier than June 2023, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA, on a NASA supplied launch vehicle. The mission is being implemented by a joint Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Project team. The project recently held its Project Preliminary Design Review and in early 2019 NASA will consider approving the mission for entry into Phase C, the Detailed Design phase. A down-selection to one launch vehicle by NASA is anticipated sometime before Project Critical Design Review. This paper will describe the progress of the Europa Clipper Mission since January 2018, including maturation of the spacecraft, subsystem and instrument preliminary designs, issues and trades, and planning for the Verification & Validation phase.