NASA’s largest planetary mission to explore potential for life on Jupiter’s icy moon

( WJET/WFXP ) — NASA is on the brink of launching its most ambitious planetary mission yet — the Europa Clipper. The spacecraft will head to Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon which scientists believe may be able to support life. This mission aims to uncover some of the moon’s mysteries while providing us with a complete map of the moon.

On Oct. 10, the launch window will open for the Europa Clipper mission, beginning a multi-year mission that will bring the spacecraft to Jupiter’s icy moon. Preparations for the launch have been in the works for the past 11 years, and the mission is far from over once Europa Clipper is launched.

Liftoff remains scheduled for Oct. 10 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. NASA has three weeks to launch the spacecraft before standing down for more than a year to await another proper planetary alignment.

Preparations began in 2013 with the pre-mission discussions and planning. Four years later, in 2017, the mission moved into the design phase, where it was officially designated as the ‘Europa Clipper’ mission. Only two years later, fabrication began on the spacecraft, which took three years, with assembly and testing beginning in March 2022.

The spacecraft was moved to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center this year where it now awaits launch. The final stages of assembly and testing took place over the summer.

Depending on the launch date of the spacecraft, the Europa Clipper is expected to make a flyby of Mars in February of 2025, coming within 200 to 600 miles of the surface of the red planet. This is an important step in the trip to Jupiter. As it begins to enter the gravitational pull of Mars, scientists will use this opportunity to accelerate the spacecraft toward Jupiter.

The next leg of the trip will take the spacecraft back to Earth in December of 2026 for its second gravity assist. It will swing by about 2,000 miles from Earth. Combined with the earlier Mars flyby, this flyby will give the spacecraft enough energy to reach Jupiter, a trip that will take nearly 4 years.

Once it arrives, it will use its powerful engines to break over six hours. NASA says that this 6-hour burn is unusually long for a space probe, but the engines have been designed and tested to ensure it can handle the task.

Utilizing multiple flybys of Jupiter’s moons, Europa Clipper will slowly reduce its orbit to reach the correct orbit around Europa. The year is now 2031, and the spacecraft makes its first flyby of Europa, collecting the first close-up observations of the mission.

NASA plans to collect data for the mission over the next three years, at which point the current mission plan calls for an end in September 2034. At this point, the plan is for the Europa Clipper to deorbit and crash into the surface of Ganymede, the largest moon in our Solar System.

NASA will be previewing the mission at 11 a.m. EDT on September 17 at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The briefing will air live on NASA+ along with the agency’s website and social media. If you are interested in asking questions during the briefing, you can take to social media using the hashtag #AskNASA.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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