Europa Clipper Heads to Jupiter to Probe a Hidden Ocean
NASA’s Europa Clipper, launched in 2024, is on a 1.8-billion-mile journey to Jupiter to perform 49 close flybys of the icy moon Europa in order to study its suspected subsurface ocean and assess habitability. The mission won’t drill or directly detect life; instead it will use ice-penetrating radar, a magnetometer, cameras and other instruments to map the ice shell, estimate ocean depth and salinity, and search for potential plumes, guiding future life-detection missions. The voyage relies on gravity assists from Mars and Earth to reach Jupiter by 2030, with a broad science campaign beginning after arrival in 2031.