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Europa Clipper High Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing at Langley – NASA's Europa Clipper
Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, and Langley are testing the prototype in the ETR in order to assess its performance and demonstrate the high pointing accuracies required for the Europa Clipper mission.
The ETR is an indoor electromagnetic test facility that allows researchers to characterize transmitters, receivers, antennas and other electromagnetic components and subsystems in a scientifically controlled environment.
"Several years ago we scoured the country to find a facility that was capable of making the difficult measurements that would be required on the HGA and found that the ETR clearly was it,"said Thomas Magner, assistant project manager for Europa Clipper at the Applied Physics Laboratory. "The measurements that will be performed in the ETR will demonstrate that the Europa Clipper mission can get a large volume of scientific data back to Earth and ultimately determine the habitability of Europa."
Tests on this prototype antenna are scheduled to wrap up soon; however, researchers plan to return to the ETR in 2020 to conduct additional tests on Europa Clipper's high-gain antenna flight article. Europa Clipper plans to launch in the 2020s, with travel time to Jupiter taking three to seven years (depending on the launch vehicle and which planetary alignments can be utilized).
JPL manages the Europa Clipper mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The multiple-flyby concept was developed in partnership with the Applied Physics Laboratory.
News Media Contact
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-393-6215 
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov 

JoAnna Wendel 
NASA Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1003 
joanna.r.wendel@nasa.gov 

Written by Joe Atkinson
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-5644
joseph.s.atkinson@nasa.gov

Featured Resources

Deep Dive on Jupiter's Moon Europa Infographic

2021 Europa Clipper Spacecraft (Artist's Concept)

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On the Path Towards Unprecedented Science – NASA's Europa Clipper
Credit: NASA/CU Boulder-LASP.

SUDA Assembly and Testing

Europa Clipper’s SUDA instrument, pictured in the clean room, will collect and analyze particles lifted from Europa’s surface by micrometeorites. Credit: NASA/CU Boulder-LASP.

Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface
Europa Clipper’s radar instrument is called Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface, or REASON. REASON will use high frequency (HF) and very high frequency (VHF) radio signals to penetrate up to 18 miles (30 kilometers) into Europa’s icy shell. The radio waves will bounce off subsurface water or other features and return to the spacecraft to create pictures of the icy interior. REASON will help scientists to look for Europa’s suspected ocean, measure ice thickness, and better understand the icy shell's interior structure and circulation. The instrument will also study the elevation, composition, and roughness of Europa’s surface, and it can sense Europa’s upper atmosphere for signs of plume activity.

REASON VHF Radar Antenna

A JPL engineer holds one of four VHF radar antennas for Europa Clipper’s REASON instrument in its deployed configuration. In its stowed configuration for launch, the device will be about the size of a small lunchbox. In the weeks after launch, the VHF antenna will deploy to its operational configuration, of 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) long. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

REASON HF Radar Antenna

Engineers test one of two high frequency radar antennas for Europa Clipper’s REASON instrument on a hilltop at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The antenna is the narrow copper tube, held straight by several cables and a cross bar on the tower at right. In space, the copper tube will stick out straight on its own, but in Earth's gravity, the antenna requires supports to keep it straight for testing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

As with ECM and the solar arrays, the REASON antennas will be stowed for launch, then deployed into operational configuration in the weeks after launch.
REASON | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
REASON | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper

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Ice-penetrating radar will hunt for water below and within Europa’s icy shell.

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Environmental Testing

Tests are conducted to demonstrate that the Europa Clipper spacecraft can survive the environments it will experience in flight.

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Introduction
Europa Clipper will carry nine instruments with overlapping abilities and responsibilities. But only one can look directly into Europa’s icy shell. It’s called the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface, or REASON.
Radar is a powerful and versatile science tool. It uses radio waves to detect objects from afar. An array of antennas transmits signals, which bounce off objects and return to the array with a time delay. A given radio wavelength will pass through certain kinds of matter but be reflected by other kinds of matter. When you know what matter you want to detect (water or salt, for example) and what you want to pass through (ice), you choose radio wavelengths or frequencies that pass through one but bounce off the other before the signal loses strength.

Interact with an isolated view of the instrument.

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How It Works
How It Works
REASON transmits radio waves that bounce off features within the underlying ice. Some radio waves return to the spacecraft, but at a fraction of their original energy. By measuring the time difference between transmission and return, and knowing the speed radio waves travel through various materials, REASON learns how far the features are from the spacecraft.
10 Things to Know About Europa Clipper's Science Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
The flight model of Europa Clipper’s imaging spectrometer in a cleanroom at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

2. Infrared light reflected from Europa will be analyzed to determine the moon’s surface composition.
Europa Clipper will also determine the moon’s surface composition. The mission’s imaging spectrometer will analyze infrared light reflected from Europa to look for organics, such as sulfates and carbonates, and other compounds. The instrument will measure the presence, absence, and strength of various wavelengths of light that help scientists infer composition. The imaging spectrometer will map Europa’s surface composition in detail, helping scientists understand Europa’s geologic history and the moon’s suspected ocean. 

3. An ice-penetrating radar will search for subsurface lakes similar to those beneath Antarctica's ice sheet, and produce 3D images of Europa’s ice shell. 
One of Europa Clipper’s instruments will use radar to penetrate the moon’s icy shell, searching for the suspected ocean beneath and studying the ice’s structure and thickness. The ice-penetrating radar will transmit radio waves that bounce off features within the subsurface ice. 
+ read more

This same technology has been used on Earth for decades to study the thickness and substructure of the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. Europa Clipper’s radar will use two different frequencies of radio waves to penetrate Europa’s ice as much as 18 miles (30 kilometers) deep. Some radio waves will return to the spacecraft, but at a fraction of their original energy. By measuring the time difference between transmission and return, and knowing how fast radio waves travel through various materials, the radar instrument will tell us how far detected features are from the spacecraft. This will allow scientists to understand differences in material properties and produce detailed 3D images of the ice shell, including pockets of water within the ice shell that could serve as passageways for chemicals to move between the moon’s surface and the ocean below.

A test model of the boom that will be used for the magnetometer aboard Europa Clipper is readied in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. 

4.
Gravity/Radio Science | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
Gravity/Radio Science | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper

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A gravity experiment will measure Europa’s tidal flexing, ice shell, and ocean depth.

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Environmental Testing

Tests are conducted to demonstrate that the Europa Clipper spacecraft can survive the environments it will experience in flight.

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Interact with an isolated view of the instrument.

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Introduction
Gravity pulls on Europa’s Jupiter-facing side more than on its far side. Europa’s orbit is elliptical, causing the moon’s distance from Jupiter to vary. Because gravity’s strength is an inverse-square of distance, the closer Europa gets to Jupiter, the greater the difference in gravity felt by the moon’s near and far sides. As a result, Europa elongates when closer to Jupiter, and is more spherical when farther from Jupiter. When Europa changes shape, so must its gravity field.
Europa Clipper will pass through Europa’s gravity field when the moon is various distances from Jupiter. By studying how the spacecraft’s trajectory is altered by Europa’s gravity during each flyby, scientists will learn how the moon flexes, which in turn will reveal Europa’s internal structure.
How It Works
How It Works
In gravity experiments, radio antennas on Earth send a radio signal to Europa Clipper. The spacecraft then transmits to Earth at a frequency coherent to what it received. The gravity science team precisely analyzes the Doppler shift and other aspects of the radio signal received on Earth.
Europa Clipper High Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing at Langley – NASA's Europa Clipper
joanna.r.wendel@nasa.gov 

Written by Joe Atkinson
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-5644
joseph.s.atkinson@nasa.gov

Featured Resources

Deep Dive on Jupiter's Moon Europa Infographic

2021 Europa Clipper Spacecraft (Artist's Concept)

NASA's Design for Message Heading to Jupiter's Moon Europa

More resources ›

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U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, who is known for work that explores the human connection to the natural world, is crafting a new poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.

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Europa Clipper's Magnetometer Testing is Complete, Ready for Integration – NASA's Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper's Magnetometer Testing is Complete, Ready for Integration – NASA's Europa Clipper

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August 9, 2023

Europa Clipper's Magnetometer Testing is Complete, Ready for Integration

Written by Dr. Corey Cochrane, Europa Clipper Magnetometer Calibration Lead & Investigation Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Join team members from NASA’s Europa Clipper mission in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to learn about testing of the spacecraft’s magnetometer, which will help scientists answer the question, “Does Europa have an ocean?” Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM), designed and built in a collaborative effort between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of California, Los Angeles, has completed its rigorous testing and calibration at JPL and is ready for integration onto the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
The ECM instrument is composed of three fluxgate magnetic field sensors on a 28-foot (8.5-meter) boom. The sensors are strategically placed to enable the team to identify and remove from their measurements the contributions of magnetic fields originating from the spacecraft. The sensors are connected through long harnesses to an electronics unit that is housed inside the spacecraft’s protective vault.
ECM will measure the ambient magnetic field in the vicinity of Europa, but the instrument team will require sophisticated algorithms to untangle the various sources of magnetic field. Europa is surrounded by plasma, consisting of ionized particles mainly sourced from neighboring moon Io. The plasma carries electrical currents that contribute magnetic noise to the measurements.
To understand the external sources of the magnetic field, the investigation will use the plasma environment measurements made by the Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS), an instrument developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Those measurements will help the team identify the contributions of Jupiter's dominant magnetic field as modified by magnetospheric plasma, Europa’s ionosphere, the induced magnetic field originating from Europa's subsurface ocean, and the spacecraft’s magnetic field.
10 Things to Know About Europa Clipper's Science Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
A thermal instrument will survey Europa's frozen surface in search of recent eruptions of warmer water at or near the surface. 
Europa Clipper will carry a thermal emission imaging system that will analyze infrared light from Europa to map the temperatures across the moon’s surface. It will seek clues about activity, such as cryovolcanoes and regions where the moon’s suspected ocean may be near the surface. When part of Europa rotates out of sunlight, granular material cools faster than large blocks of material. The thermal imaging system will record surface cooling rates to learn about the texture of Europa’s surface. Mapping surface temperature and water near the surface will help to understand Europa’s small-scale properties. 

Southwest Research Institute’s Brandon Perez (mechanical engineer; left) and Bryan Esquivel (technician; right) prepare to install electrical boards into Europa Clipper's ultraviolet spectrograph, tipped up to show a top view. 

8. An ultraviolet spectrograph will search for potential plumes of water vapor, and provide data on the moon’s surface and thin atmosphere. 
By collecting ultraviolet light with a telescope and creating images, Europa Clipper’s ultraviolet spectrograph will search for potential plumes of water vapor that might erupt from Europa’s surface, in addition to providing data about the composition and dynamics of the moon’s thin atmosphere, and data about the composition of the moon’s surface. The instrument collects ultraviolet light and separates its wavelengths with an optical grating. The ultraviolet spectrograph will primarily identify relatively simple molecules, such as hydrogen, oxygen, hydroxide, and carbon dioxide. 

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Staff Engineer Yvette Tyler performs integration and testing on the electronics box for Europa Clipper’s mass spectrometer. 

9. A mass spectrometer will collect and reveal the molecular identities of gases in Europa’s faint atmosphere and from possible plumes. 
In addition, the mission’s mass spectrometer will identify and analyze gases in Europa’s faint atmosphere and from possible plumes. The mass spectrometer will collect gases, convert them into charged particles called ions, and bounce the ions back and forth within the instrument.
10 Things to Know About Europa Clipper's Science Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
By measuring the time difference between transmission and return, and knowing how fast radio waves travel through various materials, the radar instrument will tell us how far detected features are from the spacecraft. This will allow scientists to understand differences in material properties and produce detailed 3D images of the ice shell, including pockets of water within the ice shell that could serve as passageways for chemicals to move between the moon’s surface and the ocean below.

A test model of the boom that will be used for the magnetometer aboard Europa Clipper is readied in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. 

4. A magnetometer will measure the strength and direction of Europa’s magnetic field…
The mission will also carry a magnetometer to measure the strength and direction of the moon's magnetic field. Europa doesn’t independently generate its own magnetic field. But time-variations of Jupiter’s magnetic field induce a magnetic field within Europa, presumably via electric currents flowing in a salty ocean beneath Europa’s ice. On a boom 25 feet (8.5 meters) in length when fully deployed, Europa Clipper’s magnetometer instrument will measure the strength and orientation of both Europa and Jupiter’s magnetic fields during dozens of Europa flybys. The instrument will allow scientists to measure the depth and salinity of Europa’s suspected ocean as well as the ice shell’s thickness.

Recently assembled Faraday cup sensors and instrument housings in two configurations for Europa Clipper's plasma instrument, shown in a cleanroom at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. 

5. …and a plasma instrument will study the flow of plasma near Europa, helping to calibrate data from the magnetometer. 
Jupiter’s magnetic field also carries charged particles in an ionized gas called plasma from the volcanic moon Io, Jupiter’s ionosphere, and Europa itself. This plasma distorts Europa’s induced magnetic field. The mission’s plasma instrument will study the density, temperature, and flow of plasma near Europa. The plasma instrument has four sensors called Faraday cups, which are metal cups designed to catch charged particles in space.
ECM | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
ECM | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper

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ECM

Magnetometers will study Europa’s ice thickness, and the ocean’s depth and salinity.

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Step 4

Environmental Testing

Tests are conducted to demonstrate that the Europa Clipper spacecraft can survive the environments it will experience in flight.

Learn more ›

Introduction
Europa Clipper’s magnetometer instrument will measure strength and orientation of magnetic fields during dozens of Europa flybys. Compasses and magnetometers can both detect magnetic fields. But scientific magnetometers are far more sensitive and precise. They allow scientists to accurately measure magnetic fields, and study how they vary with time and location.
The magnetometer boom will be approximately 28 feet (8.5 meters) long, with three fluxgate sensors. To fit aboard the rocket, the boom will be stowed in a canister. It will deploy to its full length in the days after launch. The magnetometer should allow scientists to confirm the existence of Europa’s ocean, and measure its depth and salinity. The instrument will also measure the ice shell’s thickness.

Interact with an isolated view of the instrument.

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How It Works
How It Works
Jupiter rotates once every 10 hours, and its magnetic field spins right along with it. The magnetic field whips high-energy plasma along at almost the same rate. The plasma distorts the magnetic field near Europa, as does the spacecraft itself, and this affects magnetometer data.
ECM | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
High-energy radiation alters Europa’s surface compounds. Thinner ice improves the odds that those surface compounds travel through the ice to the ocean. It would also enable ocean material to reach the surface more easily to be altered by Jupiter radiation before again migrating back to the ocean.
Meet the Team
Meet the Team

The ECM team poses for a photo in Europa Clipper's High Bay 2, with the spacecraft's magnetometer boom deployed in the background. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

“One of the things that I value is the opportunity to work with this fantastic team during the building, testing, and calibration planning for the magnetometer,” Kivelson said.

“It’s very nice to work so well between the engineering team and the science team.”

- University of Michigan space physicist Xianzhe Jia, deputy team lead for the magnetometer

University of Michigan space physicist Xianzhe Jia is deputy team lead for the magnetometer. He agrees with Kivelson’s sentiment. “The engineering team approached the science team for our input about where to place the sensors on the magnetometer boom. They keep coming back to us to keep us informed. It’s a very close relationship,” Jia said. “It’s very nice to work well between the engineering team and the science team,” he said. “Margy [Kivelson] and I are both very pleased about the nice relationship between the teams. And Margy is very open and listens to me and other team members.”

Margaret Kivelson

Team Leader

University of California Los Angeles, University of Michigan

Where is ECM on Clipper?

ECM highlighted in red on the Europa Clipper Spacecraft.

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Members of the media put on “bunny suits” on April 11, 2024, to see Europa Clipper up close at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.