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Europa Clipper's Narrow-Angle Camera Delivered to JPL

Twelve engineers and technicians dressed in white protective “bunny suits” stand behind and beside to Europa Clipper’s narrow-angle camera (NAC). The NAC is on a platform with rods sticking straight up at the corners of the platform. It’s wrapped in silver-colored insulating material, it has a round base about the size of a tire. The lens is sticking out at an angle and is laced up inside the insulating material. Yellow tape on the floor marks the area around NAC. Equipment and gear sits on tables behind, and to the sides of the workers.

Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Published: April 12, 2023

Engineers stand Europa Clipper’s narrow-angle camera (NAC), which was built at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL). The NAC arrived at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California in April 2023 for integration into the spacecraft.

The NAC is half of the Europa Imaging System, or EIS (pronounced “ice”). The other camera is a wide-angle camera (WAC), which was delivered to JPL in June 2022. Together, the cameras will capture Europa’s valleys, ridges, dark bands, and other features in great detail. The NAC will also produce a global map of Europa.