PSI’s Julie Rathbun and Candy Hansen attended a science team meeting at the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission that will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa and investigate whether the icy moon could have conditions suitable for life.
Europa Clipper is an interplanetary mission in development by NASA comprising an orbiter. Planned for launch in October 2024, the spacecraft is being developed to study the Galilean moon Europa through a series of flybys while in orbit around Jupiter.
Rathbun is a Co-I on Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS) that will produce infrared images of Europa at three different wavelengths to map the moon’s surface temperature, as well as surface texture. Hansen is Co-I on the Europa Imaging System (EIS), a wide-angle camera and a narrow-angle camera, each with an eight-megapixel sensor, that will map Europa with high-resolution color and stereoscopic images.
Attendees got caught up on the mission’s status, which is currently in Assembly, Test and Launch Operations (ATLO), the status of instruments, some of which are being delivered, and took some tours of the spacecraft and instruments.
Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch October 2024.
