The Europa Clipper Mission: Preparing to Launch, and Onward to an Ocean World

With a launch readiness date of late 2024, NASA's Europa Clipper will set out to explore the habitability of Europa, a Galilean satellite of Jupiter's approximately the size of Earth's moon thought to possess a deep, global saltwater ocean at present day. In the early 2030s, the spacecraft will enter Jupiter orbit to perform nearly 50 flybys of Europa to collect data. The mission will interrogate the geologically-young outer icy shell, potentially tens-of-kilometers thick, and global subsurface ocean, potentially more than 100 km deep. With a goal of exploring Europa to investigate its habitability, the mission's science objectives are to study Europa's composition, investigate its geology, understand its interior, and search for and characterize any current activity. The mission's science will be accomplished using a highly capable suite of remote-sensing and in situ instruments. The remote sensing payload consists of 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). The in-situ instruments comprise 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). Gravity and Radio Science (G/RS) will be achieved using the spacecraft's telecommunication system, and valuable scientific data will be acquired by the spacecraft's Radiation Monitoring system (RADMON). The spacecraft and the payload are currently under construction as the mission begins its assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) phase. Recent major milestones include evaluation of candidate tours by the science team, delivery of the propulsion and radio frequency module from APL to JPL, delivery of ~half of the science instruments, and preparations for the cruise and operational phases of the mission. The project, flight system, and payload have completed their Critical Design Reviews, and the project has completed its System Integration Review. Europa Clipper is now formally a Phase D mission. Meanwhile, the science team is preparing a set of manuscripts describing the mission's science and instruments for publication in the journal Space Science Reviews.