Potential Landing Sites: A Comprehensive Reconnaissance Assessment of the Europa Clipper Trajectory
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will explore Jupiter’s icy moon via multiple flybys in the early 2030s. The ocean world Europa is one of the most promising locations to search for life elsewhere in the solar system, and thus Europa Clipper’s main goal is to characterize Europa’s habitability. In the f...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Planetary Science Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/add469 |
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| author | Jennifer E. C. Scully Ines Belgacem Rutu Parekh Cyril Grima Cynthia B. Phillips Kathleen L. Craft Geoffrey C. Collins Charlie Detelich Erin J. Leonard Ishan Mishra G. Wesley Patterson Louise M. Prockter Angela M. Stickle Sarah S. Sutton Danielle Y. Wyrick Catherine M. Elder Alfred S. McEwen Colleen M. O’Shea Jordi E. Turner and the Europa Clipper Reconnaissance Focus Group |
| author_facet | Jennifer E. C. Scully Ines Belgacem Rutu Parekh Cyril Grima Cynthia B. Phillips Kathleen L. Craft Geoffrey C. Collins Charlie Detelich Erin J. Leonard Ishan Mishra G. Wesley Patterson Louise M. Prockter Angela M. Stickle Sarah S. Sutton Danielle Y. Wyrick Catherine M. Elder Alfred S. McEwen Colleen M. O’Shea Jordi E. Turner and the Europa Clipper Reconnaissance Focus Group |
| author_sort | Jennifer E. C. Scully |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will explore Jupiter’s icy moon via multiple flybys in the early 2030s. The ocean world Europa is one of the most promising locations to search for life elsewhere in the solar system, and thus Europa Clipper’s main goal is to characterize Europa’s habitability. In the future, especially if Europa Clipper finds that Europa is habitable, a follow-on landed mission may explore Europa’s surface to search for evidence of life. Here we show that 12 of the 49 prime-mission Europa Clipper flybys are “reconable,” meaning they contain at least one portion of the ground track where the requirements for collecting data necessary for terrain relative navigation (TRN) are fulfilled. TRN would be used by a future mission to navigate to a landing site. Using data from the prior Galileo mission, we study what is currently known about these reconable areas and rank them. Three reconable flybys are ranked highest because of their particular scientific potential, which we discuss based on existing studies. We also identify and rank supporting flybys, which are not themselves reconable but provide data for additional characterization of reconable areas. These current rankings demonstrate the process for assessing reconable areas and reflect present-day knowledge. Future decisions on landing site location(s) would be based on new knowledge from Europa Clipper and would likely yield different priorities than the current rankings. We conclude that there are areas on Europa with particular scientific interest that Europa Clipper will be able to fully characterize for potential future in situ exploration. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-23d4c33c067e465da03e97dac24beb36 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2632-3338 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Planetary Science Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-23d4c33c067e465da03e97dac24beb362025-08-20T03:31:10ZengIOP PublishingThe Planetary Science Journal2632-33382025-01-016614210.3847/PSJ/add469Potential Landing Sites: A Comprehensive Reconnaissance Assessment of the Europa Clipper TrajectoryJennifer E. C. Scully0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7139-8050Ines Belgacem1Rutu Parekh2Cyril Grima3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7135-3055Cynthia B. Phillips4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8914-9562Kathleen L. Craft5Geoffrey C. Collins6Charlie Detelich7Erin J. Leonard8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5150-5426Ishan Mishra9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6092-7674G. Wesley Patterson10https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4787-3899Louise M. Prockter11Angela M. Stickle12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7602-9120Sarah S. Sutton13Danielle Y. Wyrick14Catherine M. Elder15https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9993-8861Alfred S. McEwen16Colleen M. O’Shea17Jordi E. Turner18and the Europa Clipper Reconnaissance Focus GroupJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; jennifer.e.scully@jpl.nasa.govJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; jennifer.e.scully@jpl.nasa.gov; European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) , Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanización Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Cañada, E-28692 Madrid, SpainJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; jennifer.e.scully@jpl.nasa.govUniversity of Texas Institute for Geophysics , 10601 Exploration Way, Building 196, Austin, TX 78758, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; jennifer.e.scully@jpl.nasa.govJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USAWheaton College , 26 East Main Street, Norton, MA 02766, USACornell University , 300 Day Hall, 10 East Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14853, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; jennifer.e.scully@jpl.nasa.govJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; jennifer.e.scully@jpl.nasa.govJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USAJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USAJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USALunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona , 1629 East University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85721, USASouthwest Research Institute , 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; jennifer.e.scully@jpl.nasa.govLunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona , 1629 East University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85721, USAJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USAJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USANASA’s Europa Clipper mission will explore Jupiter’s icy moon via multiple flybys in the early 2030s. The ocean world Europa is one of the most promising locations to search for life elsewhere in the solar system, and thus Europa Clipper’s main goal is to characterize Europa’s habitability. In the future, especially if Europa Clipper finds that Europa is habitable, a follow-on landed mission may explore Europa’s surface to search for evidence of life. Here we show that 12 of the 49 prime-mission Europa Clipper flybys are “reconable,” meaning they contain at least one portion of the ground track where the requirements for collecting data necessary for terrain relative navigation (TRN) are fulfilled. TRN would be used by a future mission to navigate to a landing site. Using data from the prior Galileo mission, we study what is currently known about these reconable areas and rank them. Three reconable flybys are ranked highest because of their particular scientific potential, which we discuss based on existing studies. We also identify and rank supporting flybys, which are not themselves reconable but provide data for additional characterization of reconable areas. These current rankings demonstrate the process for assessing reconable areas and reflect present-day knowledge. Future decisions on landing site location(s) would be based on new knowledge from Europa Clipper and would likely yield different priorities than the current rankings. We conclude that there are areas on Europa with particular scientific interest that Europa Clipper will be able to fully characterize for potential future in situ exploration.https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/add469EuropaPlanetary geology |
| spellingShingle | Jennifer E. C. Scully Ines Belgacem Rutu Parekh Cyril Grima Cynthia B. Phillips Kathleen L. Craft Geoffrey C. Collins Charlie Detelich Erin J. Leonard Ishan Mishra G. Wesley Patterson Louise M. Prockter Angela M. Stickle Sarah S. Sutton Danielle Y. Wyrick Catherine M. Elder Alfred S. McEwen Colleen M. O’Shea Jordi E. Turner and the Europa Clipper Reconnaissance Focus Group Potential Landing Sites: A Comprehensive Reconnaissance Assessment of the Europa Clipper Trajectory The Planetary Science Journal Europa Planetary geology |
| title | Potential Landing Sites: A Comprehensive Reconnaissance Assessment of the Europa Clipper Trajectory |
| title_full | Potential Landing Sites: A Comprehensive Reconnaissance Assessment of the Europa Clipper Trajectory |
| title_fullStr | Potential Landing Sites: A Comprehensive Reconnaissance Assessment of the Europa Clipper Trajectory |
| title_full_unstemmed | Potential Landing Sites: A Comprehensive Reconnaissance Assessment of the Europa Clipper Trajectory |
| title_short | Potential Landing Sites: A Comprehensive Reconnaissance Assessment of the Europa Clipper Trajectory |
| title_sort | potential landing sites a comprehensive reconnaissance assessment of the europa clipper trajectory |
| topic | Europa Planetary geology |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/add469 |
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