NASA has begun building the SUV-sized Europa Clipper spacecraft that will investigate Jupiter’s icy, ocean moon following its launch in October 2024.
The US space agency has announced that Clipper is now being put together at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, Southern California.
The Clipper mission aims to find out if Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, hosts conditions suitable for life using ‘a sophisticated suite of science instruments’.
Europa, an icy moon with a hidden subsurface ocean, has