On October 14, NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft embarked on a vital mission. The rover will investigate the potential habitability of Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa, but first it must get there.
Although it is not on an “alien hunting” mission, as some have described it, there is no doubt that Europa Clipper is an important step forward in our understanding of life elsewhere in the solar system. Europa is thought to contain some of the essential elements for life beneath its thick, icy crust, including complex chemicals and water, so the Europa Clipper was tasked with deciphering the habitability conditions of this moon of Jupiter. By doing so, it will help scientists better plan missions that might have the potential to hunt down organisms, even if only by eliminating a promising target.
“The three main scientific goals of the mission are to understand the nature of the icy crust and the ocean beneath it, as well as the composition and geology of the Moon,” NASA wrote on its website. Europa Clipper mission website. “The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential of habitable worlds beyond our planet.”
But it's not easy now that the Europa Clipper has left Earth. The journey to the Jovian system is impressive, with the gas giant located 444 million miles (778 million kilometers) from Earth on average. Additionally, the $6 billion spacecraft will not deliver a direct strike on the gas giant.
By the time NASA's spacecraft reaches the Jovian system in April 2030, it will have traveled at least 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers). According to the space agency.
Here is what the itinerary looks like.
A grand tour of the solar system
For Europa Clipper to reach Jupiter and enter the orbit it needs to explore Europa, it will need to make several flybys of other planets in the solar system. This would include Earth, or at least the region of space around our planet that could provide “gravitational assistance.”
Now that it's launched, the spacecraft's next major event will be a flyby of Mars on March 1, 2025. During this maneuver, the spacecraft will get as close as 300 miles and 600 miles (482 to 965 kilometers) above Mars. surface.
However, this gravitational assistance will not send Europa Clipper to Jupiter. Instead, it then returns toward Earth.
NASA's spacecraft will return home in time for Christmas 2026, and will fly around our planet on December 3 of that year. This will be a literal flyby (no pun intended) that won't see the spacecraft approach Earth any closer than about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) and quickly depart forever. This will give Europa Clipper enough energy to finally set a course for Jupiter.
When it arrives in the Jovian system in 2030, the orbiter will turn on its engines to slow its approach to the gas giant and its associated moons. NASA says this process will take about six hours. As it brakes, Europa Clipper will make its first flyby of Jupiter's moon. This will not be Europa, but the largest moon in the solar system: Ganymede.
A flyby of Ganymede and several other Jovian moons will reduce Europa Clipper's orbit and bring it into sync with its ultimate target, Europa. The spacecraft will fly around this icy ocean world in the spring of 2031, with its science campaign launching in May of the same year. Over the next three years, the spacecraft will make 49 flybys of Europa using its suite of nine instruments to collect data on the conditions of the icy moon.
At this point, you might be wondering: There are a few icy ocean moons in the solar system, like Saturn's moon Enceladus, that could contain the right stuff for life, so why did NASA choose Europa as the focus of its interest?
Europe has a lot to do
Well, based on what we know about the conditions needed to support life on Earth, Europa appears to have the right elements for habitability.
First, Europa's features strongly suggest a subsurface ocean beneath the 2- to 19-mile-thick (3-30 km) icy crust of this Jovian moon.
This ocean of liquid water is believed to be a global ocean and its average depth is estimated at 62 miles (100 km). For comparison, the average depth of Earth's oceans is about 2.5 miles (4 km). And it's not just Europe's abundance of water that makes it a promising target for habitability studies.
Life needs certain chemical elements to form its “building blocks,” including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. These elements combine together to form what are called “organic molecules,” which are essential for life and make up 98% of living matter here on Earth. Researchers believe that these elements were likely incorporated into Europa when the Jovian moon formed.
After its birth, additional organic molecules are thought to have been delivered to Europa via asteroids and comets that collided with its surface, similar to how scientists hypothesized that asteroids delivered many of the ingredients necessary for life to Earth.
Living things also need food, no matter how simple, and Europa can provide that through internal rock weathering.
“Water dissolves nutrients that organisms need to eat, transports important chemicals within living cells, supports metabolism and allows those cells to get rid of waste,” NASA says on its website. Europe website. “Scientists are confident that there is a rocky seafloor at the bottom of Europa's ocean. Hydrothermal activity could provide chemical nutrients that could support organisms.”
And there's more: Living things need energy, too. This is provided by the gravitational influence of Jupiter and the gas giant planet.
This impact generates strong tidal forces that cause Europa's rocky interior to “bend”, releasing chemicals and also heating its oceans. Additional energy is supplied in the form of radiation from Jupiter, which would be a death sentence for simple life on Europa's surface. However, beneath the moon's protective icy crust, filtered radiation could actually be a fuel source for ocean-dwelling organisms.
Currently, the Europa Clipper is scheduled to cease operations in September 2034, less than a decade after its launch. The spacecraft will be deorbited and sent to dive to the surface of Ganymede.
By then, the data collected by the spacecraft during its decade-long lifespan may have brought humanity tantalizingly close to finally answering the question of whether life exists beyond Earth.
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