NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, launched on October 14, is en route to study Jupiter's icy moon Europa, believed to harbor a subsurface ocean. The mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. As of now, it has traveled 20 million kilometers from Earth at a speed of 35 kilometers per second relative to the Sun.
Officials from NASA stated, "Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft ever developed by NASA for a planetary mission." The spacecraft will cover a distance of 2.9 billion kilometers to reach Jupiter, beginning a series of 49 flybys in 2030 to gather data on the moon's potential to support life.
Upon launch, the spacecraft successfully deployed its massive solar panels, which span the length of a basketball court, to collect solar energy for its journey and scientific investigations within the Jovian system. Recently, the deployment of the magnetometer boom and several radar antennas was also completed.
The magnetometer, measuring 8.5 meters in length, unfurled from a canister mounted on the spacecraft's body. Sensors connected to this equipment confirmed successful deployment. Once the spacecraft reaches Jupiter, the magnetometer will measure the magnetic field around Europa, aiding scientists in confirming the existence of the ocean beneath the moon's icy crust and assessing its depth and salinity.
The radar instrument includes four high-frequency antennas extending from the solar panels, each measuring 17.6 meters, along with eight rectangular very high-frequency antennas, each 2.76 meters long. Engineering data returning from the spacecraft enables the mission team to evaluate the equipment's performance.
Jordan Evans, the Europa Clipper project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, remarked, "This is an exciting time for the spacecraft as we complete these critical deployments. Much of what the team is working on now involves understanding small, interesting details in the data that help deepen our understanding of the spacecraft's behavior. It's truly gratifying to see this progress."
The team will continue to conduct equipment checks, with seven additional instruments expected to be activated in a series of tests planned for December and January.
To reach Jupiter, the spacecraft will perform several gravitational assists, looping around Mars and then back around Earth. These maneuvers allow the spacecraft to harness the planets' gravitational forces to gain speed and alter its trajectory.
The first gravitational assist around Mars is scheduled for March 1, 2025, when scientists plan to conduct several tests on the radar instrument and activate the spacecraft's thermal imager to capture multi-colored images of Mars. The spacecraft will then pass near Earth in December 2026 to further accelerate toward Jupiter, utilizing this final gravitational assist for calibrating the magnetometer and measuring the magnetic field of our planet.