Jupiter is by a good margin the largest planet in our solar system, with a diameter estimated to be 11 times larger than earth and a volume estimated at 1,300 times that of earth. On top of this, the massive planet has a reported 95 moons, with the number likely to increase as more powerful telescopes discover moons rotating around the huge planet. Thus, it is only seems fitting that NASA deploys an appropriately large spacecraft to explore the largest planet.

On Monday, NASA launched Europa Clipper into space Europa Clipper on a Space X Falcon Heavy rocket, embarking on an over five-year mission to Jupiter with the craft reaching Jupiter’s orbit by April 2030. While Jupiter is undoubtedly a fascinating planet to study, Europa Clipper is one another key mission, namely studying one of the planet’s key moons─Europa─for what the mission is named for. By 2031, the spacecraft will start making 49 flybys of Europa, making detailed scientific explorations of one of Jupiter’s largest moons,

Scientists speculate that Europa, despite its vast distance from the sun, could possibly show signs of life beneath its icy crust. NASA hopes Europa Clipper will determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.

This artist’s concept depicts what Europa’s internal structure could look like: an outer shell of ice; a deep, global layer of liquid water; and a rocky interior. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Engineering marvel

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To undertake this lengthy, difficult mission, NASA has made Europa Clipper a showcase of rigorous aerospace engineering.  Europa Clipper has 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. The craft is about 16 feet (5 meters) in height. With its arrays deployed, the spacecraft spans more than 100 feet (30.5 meters) and has a dry mass (no propellant in the tanks) of 7,145 pounds (3,241 kg).

NASA enclosed Europa Clipper's payload and other electronics in a thick-walled vault that withstands harsh radiation. This strategy of was developed and successfully used for the first time by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The vault walls – made of titanium and aluminum – will act as a radiation shield against most of the high-energy atomic particles, dramatically slowing down degradation of the spacecraft's electronics.

To explore Europa’s icy terrain, NASA fitted the craft with an arsenal of instruments. These include cameras and spectrometers to produce high-resolution images and composition maps of Europa's surface and thin atmosphere, an ice-penetrating radar to search for subsurface water, and a magnetometer and gravity measurements to unlock clues about its ocean and deep interior. In addition, Europa Clipper will carry a thermal instrument to pinpoint locations of warmer ice and perhaps recent eruptions of water, and instruments to measure the composition of tiny particles in the moon's thin atmosphere and surrounding space environment.

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Armed with this formidable array of instruments for each of the mission’s 49 flybys, scientists will be able to determine how thick the moon’s icy shell is and gain a deeper understanding of the vast ocean beneath. Scientists will inventory material on the surface that might have come up from below, search for the fingerprints of organic compounds that form life’s building blocks, and sample any gases ejected from the moon for evidence of habitability.