Europa Clipper Mission to Identify Potential Landing Sites for Future Lander on Jupiter's Icy Moon

The Europa Clipper mission, slated to reach the Jovian system in April 2030, will play a crucial role in identifying potential landing sites for a future Europa lander. The spacecraft will perform 49 close flybys of Europa, following an elliptical orbit around Jupiter. Researchers have assessed which of these flybys, based on tour option '21F31v7', are suitable for reconnaissance and landing site selection. A key aspect of the future lander's navigation will be Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN), relying on high-quality images acquired by the Europa Imaging System (EIS) during the Clipper's flybys. To be considered 'reconable,' a flyby must meet specific requirements related to solar incidence angle, emission angle, and spatial resolution. Out of the 49 flybys, 12 have been identified as reconable, with E19 being the most desirable due to its coverage of a transition between ridged plains and the Powys Regio Chaos Terrain. While these rankings are based on data from the Galileo mission and are subject to change, this assessment provides a valuable guidebook for the Europa Clipper team during operations in the 2030s.