Europa Clipper Mission: Onward to Implementation!

Jackson, Maddalena; Bayer, Todd; Sheldon, Colin; Buffington, Brent; Harris, Ian; Jones-Wilson, Laura; Laslo, N. R.; Lee, Gene; Perez, Ramiro; Salami, Mana; Schimmels, Kathy; Smith, B. A.; Soriano, Melissa; Wang, Xu

doi:10.1109/aero47225.2020.9172447

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…These thresholds are selected so that a marginal score indicates that the accuracy range includes the median of the posterior, while a success requires probability mass at least equivalent to the ±1σ range of a Gaussian distribution to fall within the accuracy window. For the ice thickness and ocean conductivity, the accuracy range is given by ±50% of the input value to match the Europa Clipper science objectives (Jackson et al 2020). For the ocean thickness this would cover most of the allowed range for most of the modeled scenarios, so we adopt a more stringent requirement of ±25 km for this parameter.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A key goal of the Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM) investigation is to break the degeneracies between ocean conductivity, ocean thickness, and ice thickness by measuring the magnetic response of Europa at multiple frequencies (Raymond et al 2015). In conjunction with measurements from other instruments, these data will allow Europa Clipper to achieve its science objectives to constrain the globally averaged ice shell and ocean thickness, as well as the ocean's salinity, to within ±50% (Jackson et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Revealing the Interior Structure of Icy Moons with a Bayesian Approach to Magnetic Induction Measurements

Biersteker¹,

Weiss²,

Cochrane

et al. 2023

Planet. Sci. J.

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Some icy moons and small bodies in the solar system are believed to host subsurface liquid water oceans. The interaction of these saline, electrically conductive oceans with time-varying external magnetic fields generates induced magnetic fields. Magnetometry observations of these induced fields in turn enable the detection and characterization of these oceans. We present a framework for characterizing the interiors of icy moons using multifrequency induction and Bayesian inference applied to magnetometry measurements anticipated from the upcoming Europa Clipper mission. Using simulated data from the Europa Clipper Magnetometer, our approach can accurately retrieve a wide range of plausible internal structures for Europa. In particular, the ocean conductivity is recovered to within ±50% for all internal structure scenarios considered, and the ocean thickness can be retrieved to within ±25 km for five out of seven scenarios. Characterization of the ice shell thickness to ±50% is possible for six of seven scenarios. Our recovery of the ice shell thickness is highly contingent on accurate modeling of magnetic fields arising from the interaction of Europa with the ambient magnetospheric plasma, while the ocean thickness is more modestly affected and the ocean conductivity retrieval is largely unchanged. Furthermore, we find that the addition of a priori constraints (e.g., static gravity measurements) can yield improved ocean characterization compared to magnetometry alone, suggesting that multi-instrument techniques can play a key role in revealing the interiors of Europa and other ocean worlds.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing the Interior Structure of Icy Moons with a Bayesian Approach to Magnetic Induction Measurements

Biersteker¹,

Weiss²,

Cochrane

et al. 2023

Planet. Sci. J.

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show abstract

“…The presence of abundant liquid water (greater volume even than on Earth), available energy, and chemical reservoirs together at Europa meet hypothesized criteria for habitability and for the possibility of biology of an origin utterly independent of Earth's (National Research Council, 1999;Chyba and Phillips, 2002). Following the pathfinding discoveries of Europa's unique features during the Galileo mission (Pappalardo et al, 2009) and from telescopic observations (Roth et al, 2014;Sparks et al, 2016), NASA is now preparing to launch the Europa Clipper flagship mission (planned for 2024), that will thoroughly analyze Europa's habitability and provide surface maps of topography and composition from a multiple-flyby spacecraft (Howell and Pappalardo 2020;Jackson et al, 2020). Such data would support the final planning of a proposed surface mission directly focused on astrobiology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) for a Future Europa Lander Mission

Brinckerhoff¹,

Willis²,

Ricco³

et al. 2022

Front. Space Technol.

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The Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) is an instrument concept being developed for the Europa Lander mission currently under study. EMILI will meet and exceed the scientific and technical/resource requirements of the organic composition analyzer identified as a core instrument on the Lander. EMILI tightly couples two complementary analytical techniques, based on 1) liquid extraction and processing with capillary electrophoresis and 2) thermal and chemical extraction with gas chromatography, to robustly detect, structurally characterize, and quantify the broadest range of organics and other Europan chemicals over widely-varying concentrations. Dual processing and analysis paths enable EMILI to perform a thorough characterization of potential molecular biosignatures and contextual compounds in collected surface samples. Here we present a summary of the requirements, design, and development status of EMILI with projected scientific opportunities on the Europa Lander as well as on other potential life detection missions seeking potential molecular biosignatures in situ.

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“…These ocean worlds are of interest because they have vast amounts of water and potentially habitable subsurface conditions . During the Cassini mission, organic compounds and evidence of subsurface hydrothermal activity were observed in plume material ejected from Enceladus. , As a result, the most recent Decadal Survey prioritizes missions to Enceladus, ,, including flyby missions to capture and analyze the materials ejected in plumes and landed surface missions to analyze material in situ . , This would enable direct analysis of samples from Enceladus for organic biosignatures using in situ analytical chemistry methods. In the future, long-range mission planning to Enceladus could include robotic explorers that could rove on the surface, explore cracks, and potentially penetrate the icy crust of the moon to explore the subsurface ocean. , …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 During the Cassini mission, organic compounds and evidence of subsurface hydrothermal activity were observed in plume material ejected from Enceladus. 3,4 As a result, the most recent Decadal Survey prioritizes missions to Enceladus, 1,5,6 including flyby missions to capture and analyze the materials ejected in plumes and landed surface missions to analyze material in situ. 7,8 This would enable direct analysis of samples from Enceladus for organic biosignatures using in situ analytical chemistry methods.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Submersible Capillary Electrophoresis Analyzer: A Proof-of-Concept Demonstration of an In Situ Instrument for Future Missions to Ocean Worlds

et al. 2023

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We report here the first fully automated capillary electrophoresis (CE) system that can be operated underwater. The system performs sample acquisition and analysis by coupling CE to contactless conductivity detection. Using 5 M acetic acid as the background electrolyte (BGE), inorganic cations and amino acids at concentrations as low as 5.2 μM can be separated and identified. This technology could be augmented to include a variety of other detection modes. This system serves as an early prototype for potential future underwater explorers on ocean worlds of the outer solar system such as Europa or Enceladus. This work documents the first step in the development of this general-purpose technology platform.

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Europa Clipper Mission: Onward to Implementation!

Cited by 12 publications

References 8 publications

Revealing the Interior Structure of Icy Moons with a Bayesian Approach to Magnetic Induction Measurements

Revealing the Interior Structure of Icy Moons with a Bayesian Approach to Magnetic Induction Measurements

Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) for a Future Europa Lander Mission

Submersible Capillary Electrophoresis Analyzer: A Proof-of-Concept Demonstration of an In Situ Instrument for Future Missions to Ocean Worlds

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