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Europa Clipper and People

An illustration shows the scale of the Europa Clipper spacecraft by showing it next to the silhouettes of two people. The two human figures stand to the left of the spacecraft. The spacecraft, with its metallic main body at the center and its two solar array wings stretched out on either side, is about three times as tall as the human figures.
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Published: May 21, 2024

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is about 16 feet (5 meters) in height, and will be the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission.

It needs large solar arrays to collect enough light for its power needs as it operates in the Jupiter system, which is more than five times as far from the Sun as Earth. With its solar arrays deployed, Europa Clipper spans more than 100 feet (about 30.5 meters), and has a dry mass (no propellant in the tanks) of 7,145 pounds (3,241 kg).

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Europa Clipper's ultraviolet spectrograph in a cleanroom at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
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Europa Clipper's ultraviolet spectrograph in a cleanroom at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
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One of Europa Clipper’s star tracker optical heads in a JPL clean room for testing.
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One of Europa Clipper’s star tracker optical heads in a JPL clean room for testing in October 2021. After the spacecraft’s launch in October 2024, the star tracker will autonomously identify stars to determine Europa Clipper’s orientation in space. The device is essential for precisely pointing the spacecraft’s science instruments and communication antennas.
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A 3D model of the MAss Spectrometer for Planetary EXploration/Europa (MASPEX), a chemical analysis instrument on Europa Clipper.
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Engineers test one of two high frequency radar antennas for Europa Clipper’s REASON instrument on a hilltop at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Engineers test one of two high frequency radar antennas for Europa Clipper’s REASON instrument on a hilltop at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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The imaging spectrometer's scanning mirror and data procesing unit are loaded onto a shipping truck. 
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Members of Europa Clipper’s imaging spectrometer instrument, called MISE, team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory place a container loading the instrument’s scanning mirror and data processing unit on a shipping truck. The truck transported the instrument parts to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in November 2021.
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The Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) flight instrument in early fall 2021, just before the principal investigator's final optical inspection and installation of its top cover. 
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The Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) flight instrument in early fall 2021, just before the principal investigator's final optical inspection and installation of its top cover.
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Mihaela Ballarotto samples Europa Clipper's propulsion module for planetary protection cleanliness prior to harness installation. 
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This animation shows NASA’s Europa Clipper during a flyby of Europa. 
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This animation shows NASA’s Europa Clipper during a flyby of Europa.
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An engineer makes an electrical connection to the sensor head for Europa Clipper’s dust analyzer.
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An engineer in white full-body coveralls, a mask, and light blue gloves is shown attaching a wire to the SUDA sensor head. Only the top of the sensor head is visible, and is seen on the lower right portion of the image. The sensor head is gold in color. In the distance, engineers work on other components in the clean room.
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This is an artist's concept of a plume of water vapor thought to be ejected off the frigid, icy surface of the Jovian moon Europa.
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This animation segment shows the deployment of NASA’s Europa Clipper REASON instrument after launch.
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Europa Clipper’s SUDA instrument, pictured in the clean room, will collect and analyze particles lifted from Europa’s surface by micrometeorites.
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Europa Clipper’s SUDA instrument, pictured in the clean room, will collect and analyze particles lifted from Europa’s surface by micrometeorites.
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An engineering (non-flight) model of the EIS narrow-angle camera.
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An engineering (non-flight) model of the EIS narrow-angle camera
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In this lab activity, students become materials scientists for a day.
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Engineers inspect Europa Clipper's ultraviolet spectrograph in a cleanroom at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
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Engineers inspect Europa Clipper's ultraviolet spectrograph in a cleanroom at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
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A 3D-printed mock-up of optical head and shielding for Europa Clipper’s stellar reference unit (or star tracker) going through contamination control and planetary protection sampling prior to enter...
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Workers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California watch as the Europa Clipper’s magnetometer boom is tested.
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This animation shows NASA’s Europa Clipper during a flyby of Europa. 
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This animation shows NASA’s Europa Clipper during a flyby of Europa.
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Europa Clipper’s thermal imager is shown here in its protective enclosure, viewing the Tempe Campus of Arizona State University during testing on a rooftop lab.
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The telescope housing for Europa Clipper’s E-THEMIS instrument.
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In a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, engineers handle Europa Clipper’s newly installed star trackers.
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Four engineers wearing white full-body coveralls, gloves, and masks, handle a flat metal structure a few inches thick, to which are attached two telescopes a foot or more long, while a fifth worker in identical attire stands to the side, holding hand-held controls for the crane that’s lofting the hardware.
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Solar array “wings” for NASA’s Europa Clipper in the cleanroom of Airbus in Leiden, the Netherlands.
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The wide-angle camera team is captured in the instrument's first light test at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
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