Why will Europa Clipper orbit Jupiter instead of Europa?
Gary Duemling
Prescott, Arizona
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is scheduled for launch in 2024, carrying 10 instruments that will assess the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. The craft will follow up on discoveries by the Galileo mission of the 1990s, which orbited Jupiter and made multiple flybys of both the planet and its major satellites. As you point out, Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter. However, it will solel