Europa Lander
Artist's concept of the Europa Lander with Jupiter and Io in the background | |
| Mission type | Astrobiology |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| Website | jpl.nasa.gov |
| Mission duration | ≤ 22 days on the surface |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Launch mass | 16.6 metric tons |
| Power | 50 kWh (from batteries only) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 2025–2030 (proposed) |
| Rocket | Space Launch System or a commercial rocket |
| Flyby of Earth | |
| Closest approach | 2027–2032 |
| Jupiter orbiter | |
| Orbital insertion | 2030–2035 |
| Europa lander | |
| Landing date | 2032–2037 |
| Large Strategic Science Missions Planetary Science Division | |
The Europa Lander is an astrobiology mission concept by NASA to send a lander to Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. If funded and developed as a large strategic science mission, it would be launched in 2027 to complement the studies by the Europa Clipper orbiter mission and perform analyses on site.
The objectives of the mission are to search for biosignatures at the subsurface ≈10 cm, to characterize the composition of non-ice near-subsurface material, and determine the proximity of liquid water and recently erupted material near the lander's location.