Europa Clipper: Mission Status and Update

NASAs Europa Clipper Mission has as its top-level science goal: Explore Europa to Investigate its Habitability. With a launch readiness date of 2024, the spacecraft will travel to Jupiter using a Mars-Earth gravity assist. At the beginning of the next decade, the spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, flying by Europa more than 40 times over ~3.5 years to observe this moons ice shell and ocean, study its composition, investigate its geology, and search for and characterize any current activity. To address the science requirements of the Europa Clipper mission, a highly capable suite of instruments comprise the mission's scientific payload. This payload includes four in situ instruments that measure fields and particles: The Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM), the Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS), the SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA), and the MAss Spectrometer for Planetary Exploration (MASPEX). In addition, five remote sensing instruments span the ultraviolet through radio: the Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS), the Europa Imaging System (EIS), the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE), the Europa Thermal Imaging System (E-THEMIS), and the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON). Gravity and radio science will be achieved via the spacecraft's telecommunication system, and valuable scientific data could come from the spacecrafts planned radiation monitoring system. As the mission moves forward towards launch, elements of both the spacecraft and the payload are under construction in preparation for assembly, testing, and launch operations. Major milestones from the past year include selection of a launch vehicle and launch readiness date by NASA, evaluation of candidate tours by the science team, and preparations for the cruise and operational phases of the mission. The flight system, project, and payload have completed their Critical Design Reviews, and the mission has undergone its System Integration Review. Through Europa Clippers Thematic Working Groups and individual investigations, the science team is also preparing a compilation of papers for publication in Space Science Reviews that will capture the exciting science of the Europa Clipper mission, as well as describe fully the suite of instruments that enable these investigations.