Brown Bag Seminar

With the launch on October 14th, 2024, NASA's Europa Clipper will out on a journey to explore the habitability of Jupiter's icy ocean world Europa. After a 5.5 yr cruise that includes gravity assists at Mars and Earth, the spacecraft will enter orbit around Jupiter and will perform nearly 50 flybys of Europa over a four-year period. To explore Europa as an integrated system and achieve a complete picture of its habitability, the Europa Clipper mission has three main science objectives to characterize: (1) the ice shell and ocean including their heterogeneity, properties, and surface–ice–ocean exchange; (2) Europa's composition including any non-ice materials on the surface and in the atmosphere, and any carbon-containing compounds; and (3) Europa's geology including surface features and localities of high science interest. In this talk, I will highlight this exciting future science of Europa Clipper and how it will be achieved by the 10 investigations and flight system.