NASA is going to Jupiter’s captivating moon Europa this year. Scientists believe a deep ocean lies beneath the icy world’s surface. The mission, called Europa Clipper, will launch in October, sending a spacecraft the size of a basketball court to make approximately 50 flybys of the distant Jovian moon, investigating whether it could support conditions suitable for life. It won’t actually land on the icy crust. However, the space agency is already preparing for a bold follow-up mission, aptly named Europa Lander, that will land on the moon’s surface and dig or drill into the ice. “In this mission concept, a spacecraft would land on Europa and collect and study samples from about 4 inches (10 centimeters) beneath the surface, looking for signs of life,” NASA explains.
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The agency has recently released images of the mission’s unique landing gear, whose legs can absorb the impact of a heavy spacecraft’s landing. Taken together, the lander’s metal appendages give the craft a spider-like appearance. Engineers are preparing to test these legs on a platform that will mimic a landing on Europa.
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Below, you can see NASA staff working on essential landing gear at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory — the same lab that designed and built missions like the Jupiter-orbiting Juno probe, the legendary Voyager spacecraft, and the Mars Perseverance rover.
An engineer testing the Europa Lander’s landing gear.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The Europa Lander testbed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
NASA engineers working on the craft’s landing system.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The craft will require a strong landing system. It will carry instruments that will penetrate about four inches into Europa’s ice. “This is a depth at which the complex chemistry of materials from the ocean below would be protected from the damaging radiation that exists in space around Jupiter,” NASA explained. It will also have a “miniature laboratory” aboard, which will search for signs of life, among other instruments. For now, the Europa Lander technically remains just a “proposal.” But engineers are preparing for its reality. First, though, the Europa Clipper will explore the intriguing Europan surface. After traveling hundreds of millions of miles away, the orbiting probe will arrive at the icy destination in 2030.
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