Europa is a premier target for advancing both planetary science and astrobiology, as well as for opening a new window into the burgeoning field of comparative oceanography. The potentially habitable subsurface ocean of Europa may harbor life, and the globally young and comparatively thin ice shell of Europa may contain biosignatures that are readily accessible to a surface lander. Europa’s icy shell also offers the opportunity to study tectonics and geologic cycles across a range of mechanisms and compositions. Here we detail the goals and mission architecture of the Europa Lander mission concept, as developed from 2015 through 2020. The science was developed by the 2016 Europa Lander Science Definition Team (SDT), and the mission architecture was developed by the preproject engineering team, in close collaboration with the SDT. In 2017 and 2018, the mission concept passed its mission concept review and delta-mission concept review, respectively. Since that time, the preproject has been advancing the technologies, and developing the hardware and software, needed to retire risks associated with technology, science, cost, and schedule.

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Multiple metal alloys, that is, Ti‐6Al‐4 V, 316 L stainless steel, MS1 maraging steel, A2 tool steel, Inconel 625 with TiC and TiB2 reinforcement, and AMZ4 bulk metallic glass, were additively manufactured through laser powder bed fusion and tested as potential excavating tools for future robotic spacecraft landing on icy planetary bodies. Mechanical specific energy as a function of blade hardness was measured for each excavating tool as it trenched through soft and hard salt, where the salt is a regolith simulant for extraterrestrial ice. A2 tool steel, MS1 maraging steel, and bulk metallic glass cutting tools were shown to perform well in the experiments. A method for using the cutting tool as a sensor was also demonstrated.

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