Europa Clipper mission: the habitability of an icy moon

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. The 2011 Planetary Decadal Survey, Vision and Voyages, states: “Because of this ocean's potential suitability for life, Europa is one of the most important targets in all of planetary science”. Exploring Europa to investigate its habitability is the goal of the proposed Europa Clipper mission. This exploration is intimately tied to understanding the three “ingredients” for life: liquid water, chemistry, and energy. The Europa Clipper mission would investigate these ingredients by comprehensively exploring Europa's ice shell and liquid ocean interface, surface geology and surface composition to glean insight into the inner workings of this fascinating moon. In addition, a lander mission is seen as a possible future step, but current data about the Jovian radiation environment and about potential landing site hazards and potential safe landing zones is insufficient. Therefore an additional goal of the mission would be to characterize the radiation environment near Europa and investigate scientifically compelling sites for hazards, to inform a potential future landed mission. The proposed Europa Clipper mission concept 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 innovative design of this multiple-flyby tour is an enabling feature of this mission: by minimizing the time spent in the radiation environment the spacecraft complexity and cost has been significantly reduced compared to previous mission concepts. The spacecraft would launch from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, on a NASA supplied launch vehicle, no earlier than 2022. The proposed mission would be formulated and implemented by a joint Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Project team.