vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Gravity/Radio Science | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
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. Then they trace it back a few steps. 
“It's like when a firetruck goes by and the pitch of the siren changes,” said Dustin Buccino, a JPL scientist and engineer, and co-investigator for the gravity investigation. “We measure the difference between the frequency the spacecraft sent and the frequency Earth received. It gives us details about the spacecraft’s motion, which gives us details about Europa’s gravity field.”
How We'll Use It
How We'll Use It
Europa Clipper will pass through Europa’s gravity field 45 times when the moon is various distances from Jupiter. The shape of Europa’s gravity field mirrors the shape of the moon itself. By studying how Europa’s gravity field changes shape, scientists are actually measuring how the moon itself changes shape. 
“We’re trying to figure out Europa’s tidal Love number,” Buccino said. The number represents how succeptible a world is to tidal forces, which depends on each world’s internal structure. “We want to find out how deep the ocean is,” Buccino said. “That’s what the tidal Love number leads to.” Europa’s flexing is determined by how much water the moon contains, how close water is to the surface, and other factors. That tells scientists the moon’s ice thickness.
Meet the Team
Meet the Team
Erwan Mazarico is the gravity team lead and a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “The mission’s goal is to see if Europa has been or could be habitable.” Doing so requires seeing inside Europa.
Discovering Alien Oceans: Density – NASA's Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper's Dust Analyzer Delivered to JPL

An engineer makes an electrical connection to the sensor head for Europa Clipper’s dust analyzer.

Assembling the Sensor Head for Europa Clipper's Dust Analyzer

Dark crisscrossing bands on Jupiter's moon Europa represent widespread disruption from fracturing and the possible eruption of gases and rocky material from the moon's interior in this four-frame m...

Dark Bands on Europa 

In a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, engineers handle Europa Clipper’s newly installed star trackers.

Star Tracker Integration

Thermal imager bolted to frame.

Thermal Imager

New research suggests Europa may have had (and perhaps still has) seafloor volcanoes.

Europa: Potential Volcanoes on the Seafloor

A 3D model of the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE), a spectrometry instrument on Europa Clipper. 

MISE

The picture compares four large impact structures on Jupiter's icy moon, Europa.

Large Impact Structures on Europa 

This shaded relief highlights relative elevations around Cilix crater on Jupiter's moon, Europa.

Topography Around Europa's Cilix Crater 

This video shows a test deployment of Europa Clipper’s high frequency (HF) radar antenna.

Europa Clipper REASON HF Radar Antenna Deployment

Engineers and technicians work together to install reaction wheels on the underside of the main body of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which is in its assembly, test, and launch operations phase...

NASA's Europa Clipper: Reaction Wheel Installation

A view of the outward-facing side of the Europa Clipper vault plate.

Europa Clipper Vault Plate - Outward-Facing Side

The Europa Clipper Solar Array Mechanical Simulator is shown installed on the spacecraft’s propulsion module.

Solar Array Mechanical Simulator

Frozen sulfuric acid on Jupiter's moon Europa is depicted in this image produced from data gathered by NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

Sulfuric Acid on Europa 

Europa Clipper science team members at the eleventh science team meeting. 

Europa Clipper Science Team
Europa Clipper Scale Model - 3D Print – NASA's Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper Scale Model - 3D Print – NASA's Europa Clipper

NASA

Europa Clipper

Skip Navigation

menu

close modal

All Resources

Europa Clipper Scale Model - 3D Print

This is a model for anyone who wants to see Europa Clipper's major components and science instruments, and manipulate the solar-array-radar wings.
The spacecraft's X, Y & Z body axes are plainly marked on the model. Attitude Control components shown include Stellar Reference Units, Sun Sensors, Reaction Wheels, and Thrusters. Communications and Gravity Science components include High-Gain Antenna, Medium-Gain Antenna, Low-Gain Antennas, and Fan Beam antennas. To identify the instruments and spacecraft components, use this interactive visualization. 
Printing: All the model's components are designed to be simple enough for FDM printing* so you can just carry the .stl files to your nearby desktop 3D printer's software, and use default settings without rafts or support material. Also, there is a single-file whole Body .stl file for those using SLS or SLA or equivalent 3D printers.
Scale: If printed as-is with no size adjustment, the scale is approximately 1:106. This version successfully reproduces key visual cues and technical details; in a future version, design tweaks might further improve scale accuracy. Enlargements up to a scale of ~1:30 have been successfully printed.

Wings: Add some blue masking tape, or glue on the images provided, to represent the photovoltaic solar cells. Snip off the REASON VHF antennas, remove their sprues, and press onto connectors on panel edges (see images). Glue in place perpendicular to the solar wings. Add the longer REASON HF antennas (see photos), one on each wing.
Version 2022G: This version has an improved wing connecting system, making it easier to connect the wings together through the spacecraft body. Use Wing Connector provided (glue halves together) or optionally use aluminum tube or rod, 5.56 mm in diameter and 30 mm in length.
How to Print
Europa Clipper's Magnetometer Testing is Complete, Ready for Integration – NASA's Europa Clipper
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. Using data from both instruments, scientists will be able to better isolate the induced response of Europa’s subsurface ocean and, thus, to better constrain its properties.

Europa Clipper’s 28-foot (8.5-meter) magnetometer boom is unfurled at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

The magnetic field measurements will give scientists estimates of both the thickness and conductivity of Europa's subsurface ocean and the thickness of the ice shell. In combination with compositional data from other Europa Clipper instruments, understanding the conductivity will tell us how salty Europa’s ocean is - which will help scientists determine if the ocean could be habitable.
After the launch of Europa Clipper in October 2024, ECM scientists will routinely calibrate the instrument’s sensors using data from the solar wind. An additional calibration opportunity will take place during the Earth flyby gravity assist maneuver, currently planned in December 2026. This flyby will allow ECM scientists to compare the measurements made by ECM to those made by other magnetometers on spacecraft in Earth’s orbit, thus providing a convenient way to calibrate the instrument. The ECM sensors will also be used for a meticulous magnetic characterization campaign of the spacecraft and its subsystems during its five-and-a-half year cruise to the Jovian system. Additional instrument calibration will happen once the spacecraft reaches the Jovian system.

Learn more

Assembly

ECM

Europa Up Close

Related News

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.
REASON | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
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.

download options ›

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.
By measuring the energy difference between transmitted signal and returning signal, combined with the measured distance, REASON can see differences in material properties. Scientists on Earth then use software to combine the radio waves to produce detailed images of the ice shell.
How We'll Use It
How We'll Use It
Different wavelengths of radio waves penetrate and bounce off different materials in distinct ways. REASON will use high frequency and very high frequency radio waves to penetrate Europa’s ice as much as 18 miles (30 kilometers) deep. It will search for the moon’s suspected ocean, measure ice thickness, and study the ice’s internal structure, including any internal water bodies that may connect the surface and the ocean. The instrument will also study the topography, composition, and roughness of Europa’s surface. And it can search Europa’s ionosphere for signs of plume activity.

“There are limits to what we can see with one frequency. But having two frequencies makes all of Europa accessible to us.”

- Don Blankenship, principal investigator for REASON

Meet the Team
Meet the Team

Jupiter’s magnetic field hurls atomic particles at Europa’s surface nonstop, creating compounds that ocean microbes might use. Thinner ice, or water passing through the ice, would help the compounds reach the ocean, improving the odds that Europa can sustain life.

“We’ve used ice-penetrating radar for decades. That’s how we know how thick Earth’s ice sheets are.

- Don Blankenship, principal investigator for REASON

How thick is Europa’s ice?
A Few Steps Closer to Europa: Spacecraft Hardware Makes Headway – NASA's Europa Clipper
The width and length of a twin-size bed, the radiator’s 3-inch-thick (7.5-centimeter-thick) panel has the crucial job of radiating heat out into space to keep the spacecraft within its operating temperature range. It is covered with louvers that open and close automatically as the spacecraft disperses more or less heat to regulate its temperature.
Meanwhile, work at APL begins to integrate the propulsion module and the telecommunications hardware (electronics, radios, antennas, and cabling). And construction of a high-gain antenna – a dish nearly 10 feet (3 meters) wide – is underway at vendor Applied Aerospace Structures Corporation in Stockton, California. It will be delivered to APL this year, where it will be integrated before the entire module comes back to JPL a final time. By the spring of 2022, the huge element will join other Europa Clipper hardware streaming into JPL’s main high bay for assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO).
One of the first elements in place for ATLO will be the spacecraft’s vault, now entering its final stage of fabrication at JPL. Eventually, the vault will be bolted to the top of the propulsion module and affixed with miles of cabling so that the power box and computer inside can communicate with the other subsystems.
Attached to the vault will be a deck, also completing assembly at JPL, that will support many of the instrument sensors. Called the nadir deck, it stabilizes the spacecraft’s sensors and helps ensure they are oriented correctly.
See more images of Europa Clipper coming together ›
Science Instruments Nearing Completion
At the same time that the spacecraft body, electronics, and engineering subsystems come together, nine science instruments are being assembled and tested across a network of clean rooms at NASA centers, partner institutions, and private industry vendors. The suite of instruments will investigate everything from the depth of the internal ocean and its salinity to the thickness of the ice crust and potential plumes that may be venting subsurface water into space.
Slated to be delivered to ATLO from late 2021 through mid-2022, the instruments, which include cameras to capture surface geology in detail, are undergoing extensive testing.
Mission Dispatch: Using Radar to Study Earth and Europa – NASA's Europa Clipper
In addition to Europa Clipper, the European Space Agency’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (or JUICE) spacecraft will carry an ice-penetrating radar called the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (or RIME) instrument. JUICE will launch in 2023 and arrive in 2031, and Europa Clipper will launch in 2024 and arrive in 2030.
While Europa Clipper and JUICE will be the first to carry this type of radar, it’s not a new technology. Ice-penetrating radar have been used by researchers to probe Earth’s ice sheets for over half a century. Researchers use ice-penetrating radar to study ice thickness, subglacial lakes, ice temperatures, the orientation of ice crystals within glaciers, and the topography and geology below ice.
“Ice and radar are an awesome combination,” says Gregor Steinbrügge, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and an investigation scientist for the REASON instrument. “Ice is very transparent to radar unless the radar hits something different. That is useful on Earth for measuring glacier and ice shelf thickness, and how they change over time.”

Anna Broome, a PhD candidate in the Stanford Radio Glaciology Lab, is shown collecting data with an experimental ice-penetrating radar system in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Roughly 650 miles (1,050 kilometers) from the North Pole, about half of Svalbard’s surface is covered in glaciers. Broome’s PhD advisor is Dustin Schroeder, a Stanford radioglaciologist on Europa Clipper’s ice-penetrating radar team. Credit: Thomas Teisberg

Ice-penetrating radar is more important than ever for monitoring Earth. “It shows us how glaciers and ice sheets are responding to climate change,” said Dustin Schroeder, a radioglaciologist at Stanford University and a member of the REASON science team. A radioglaciologist is someone who studies glaciers, ice sheets, ice caps, and icy moons using radar.
Researchers routinely fly planes with ice-penetrating radar over Greenland and Antarctica, whose combined ice sheets contain more than 99 percent of Earth’s freshwater ice.
On the Path Towards Unprecedented Science – NASA's Europa Clipper
The instrument will search for signs of recent resurfacing, such as warm ice at or near the surface. E-THEMIS will also help map surface roughness, identifying relatively hazard-free regions to inform designs and planning for a potential future Europa lander.

E-THEMIS Telescope Housing

The telescope housing for Europa Clipper’s E-THEMIS infrared instrument, which will measure the temperature and permit interpretation of roughness of Europa’s surface. Credit: NASA/Arizona State University.

E-THEMIS Focal Plane Module

An engineering model of the focal plane module for Europa Clipper’s E-THEMIS instrument. Credit: NASA/Arizona State University

Europa Clipper magnetometer
The Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM) sensors will measure the direction, strength, and time-varying nature of magnetic fields in the immediate vicinity of Europa and in the Jovian system. Europa’s magnetic field is created by the interaction between Jupiter's strong magnetic field and the suspected liquid ocean of salty water within Europa. ECM should allow scientists to confirm the existence of that ocean, measure its depth and salinity, and determine the thickness of the ice shell above. ECM will be on a boom, which will be deployed after launch.

The Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM) sensor. At left is the interior of the sensor that will measure Europa’s magnetic field, along with the sensor’s pigtail harness. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Europa Imaging System
Europa Clipper’s visible light camera suite is called the Europa Imaging System, or EIS (pronounced “ice”). EIS consists of a wide-angle camera and a narrow-angle camera, each a digital camera with an eight-megapixel sensor sensitive to visible wavelengths of light, as well as slightly into near-infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths. Both cameras will acquire stereoscopic images, and both will have six filters to acquire color images. EIS will map Europa at resolutions vastly better than previous missions, down to about 20 inches (50 centimeters) per pixel in places.
On the Path Towards Unprecedented Science – NASA's Europa Clipper
The sensor plate shown has a layer of gold over palladium, with a copper base. Credit: NASA/JHU-APL

PIMS Faraday Cup Sensors

Built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, PIMS is made up of two instruments, each with two identical sensors called Faraday cups that will measure the plasmas, or electrically charged gases, in Europa’s ionosphere and Jupiter’s magnetosphere. Pictured in a clean room at APL are the recently assembled Faraday cup sensors and instrument housings in two configurations. On the left is the final flight hardware, with insulating thermal blankets installed; on the right is a test configuration that protects sensitive hardware for transportation. Plasma measurements made by PIMS will contribute to Europa Clipper’s science investigation to determine the thickness of the ice shell that covers Europa and the depth and makeup of the liquid-water ocean below that shell. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

SUrface Dust Analyzer
Along with plasma, tiny pieces of Europa’s surface inhabit nearby space, lofted there by micrometeorites. These microscopic dust particles can be sensed by Europa Clipper’s SUrface Dust Analyzer, or SUDA. SUDA will measure the particle composition, as well as the speed and direction dust is traveling, revealing the particles’ region of origin on Europa’s surface. If Europa is found to be venting subsurface water and entrained particles into space, SUDA will measure that material as well.

SUDA Assembly and Testing

The SUrface Dust Analyser (SUDA) instrument for Europa Clipper, shown during assembly and testing at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder. 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.
E-THEMIS | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper
E-THEMIS | Instruments – NASA's Europa Clipper

NASA

Europa Clipper

Skip Navigation

menu

close modal

E-THEMIS

A thermal camera will map temperatures and texture on Europa’s surface.

Instruments

Spacecraft

MENU

Meet Europa Clipper

Instruments

EIS

E-THEMIS

Europa-UVS

MISE

ECM

PIMS

Gravity/Radio Science

REASON

MASPEX

SUDA

Assembly

Vault Plate

EIS

E-THEMIS

Europa-UVS

MISE

ECM

PIMS

Gravity/Radio Science

REASON

MASPEX

SUDA

Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS)

ASSEMBLY STATUS

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
Everything in the universe with a temperature above absolute zero emits light. Trees, bagels, birds, and even you emit light at radio and infrared wavelengths. You're making photons from scratch in this very moment, as is Europa. The icy moon is a few times farther from the Sun than Earth is, so its surface is incredibly cold. But it still emits infrared light. And that’s what Europa Clipper’s thermal imager will study in detail.
The Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System, or E-THEMIS, will map Europa’s temperatures. It will seek clues about activity such as cryovolcanos, and regions where the moon’s suspected ocean may be near the surface.

Interact with an isolated view of the instrument.

download options ›

How It Works
How It Works
Objects emit different wavelengths of light depending on their temperatures. E-THEMIS will analyze infrared light from Europa to map the moon’s surface temperature.
Like visible light, infrared is photons. But infrared is outside humans' visual range. E-THEMIS directs infrared light through three filters.
Instruments | Spacecraft – NASA's Europa Clipper
E-THEMIS

Europa-UVS

MISE

ECM

PIMS

REASON

MASPEX

SUDA

GRAVITY

*Europa Clipper will use hardware used for communicating with Earth for its gravity/radio science investigations.

Imagers
Imagers
Cameras
Europa Clipper’s visible-light cameras (extending slightly into near-infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths) will map Europa at far better resolution than previous missions. The spacecraft’s two infrared cameras will map the moon’s surface composition, temperature, and roughness. Together, the cameras and other instruments will reveal much about Europa’s chemistry and geologic activity.

Europa Imaging System (EIS)

A wide-angle camera and a narrow-angle camera, each with an eight-megapixel sensor, will produce high-resolution color and stereoscopic images of Europa. They will study geologic activity, measure surface elevations, and provide context for other instruments.
learn more ›

Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS)

The thermal imager uses infrared light to distinguish warmer regions on Europa where warm liquid water may be near the surface or might have erupted onto the surface. It will also measure surface texture to understand the small-scale properties of the surface.
learn more ›

Spectrometry
Different atoms and molecules emit, absorb, and reflect various wavelengths of light in telltale ways. As such, light carries information about materials it has interacted with. Europa Clipper’s spectrometer and spectrograph will dissect incoming infrared and ultraviolet light to decode that information and reveal the composition of Europa’s surface, and of particles in space near Europa.

Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS)

By collecting ultraviolet light with a telescope, and creating images, the mission’s ultraviolet spectrograph will help determine the composition of Europa’s atmospheric gases and surface materials. It will also search near Europa for signs of plume activity.
learn more ›

Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE)

The mission’s infrared spectrometer will map the distribution of ices, salts, organics, and the warmest hotspots on Europa.