Exploring the Jupiter System through unique joint JUICE and Europa Clipper observations

Abstract

Launched in April, 2023, ESA’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) is en route to the Jupiter system. Upon arrival in 2031, the spacecraft will orbit Jupiter for 3.5 years, making 35 total encounters with Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto, before going into orbit about Ganymede for 1 year.  NASA’s Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch in October 2024, and arrives in the Jupiter system in 2030, a year before JUICE. Orbiting Jupiter, the Clipper spacecraft will spend a year in the system before focusing on ~52 flybys of Europa during a nominal four-year primary mission phase, while also making multiple serendipitous flybys of Ganymede and Callisto. Having two highly instrumented spacecraft in close proximity in time and space affords unprecedented opportunities for synergistic observations of Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, Jupiter’s atmosphere, magnetosphere and environment, and Jupiter’s small satellites and rings, as well as opportunities for unique heliospheric and magnetosphere science during the JUICE and Clipper missions’ cruise and Jupiter-approach phases. Analysis of potential joint science opportunities is underway by a small team of scientists from the JUICE and Clipper mission teams. Ideas have been collated from JCSC members as well as from three joint Clipper-JUICE workshops (2018, 2019, 2022), and the Science Traceability Matrix from a prior joint ESA-NASA study, the Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM). We recently produced a report on science that can be accomplished during the two spacecrafts’ cruise and Jupiter approach phases (Bunce et al., this meeting), and are now investigating potential opportunities once JUICE and Clipper are in orbit around Jupiter. Multiple opportunities exist for joint science at several different targets within the Jovian system, including two opportunities near Europa where the spacecraft are within 0.5Rj of each other and only a few hours apart. Scientific objectives may fall into one or more categories: (1) time dependent, in which both spacecraft must acquire data at same time, or one spacecraft’s observations inform the other’s observations; (2) space dependent, in which each spacecraft acquires data from specific parts of the Jovian system, or both observe the same target with similar, or different viewing geometries; and (3) an increase in science data (e.g. temporal or spatial coverage) made possible due to the availability of additional instrument types or data collection opportunities. There are currently no firm commitments from NASA or ESA to accomplish science beyond that of each mission’s primary science objectives. However, discussions are ongoing and we are optimistic that our recommendations for the unprecedented opportunities afforded by the two missions’ alignment will enable funding support to be found. In this paper, we discuss some of the potential combined science from JUICE and Clipper that could further enhance understanding of the of the Jupiter system and the origin and habitability of the Galilean moons.