The spacecraft Europa Clipper is the largest NASA has ever built for a planetary mission. NASA Europa Clipper will travel 2.9 billion km to reach Jupiter in April 2030. The main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life.

Bern's expertise in camera systems sought after

"It is a real honor to be part of this incredibly exciting mission," says Nicolas Thomas. The Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Bern has been appointed co-investigator on the scientific team for the mission cameras, the Europa Imaging System (EIS), on board the Europa Clipper space probe, due to his many years of experience and expertise with camera systems.

Unique experimental facility for icy surfaces

In addition to Thomas, Antoine Pommerol and Caroline Haslebacher are also part of the EIS team. Pommerol is co-leader of Thomas' research group in the Space Research and Planetology Division at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern. “I have developed a unique experimental facility at the University of Bern that can be used to simulate icy lunar surfaces like that of Jupiter's moon Europa,” explains the astrophysicist.

He is therefore closely following all discussions about the calibration of the EIS camera system. “I am also preparing experimental datasets for the future interpretation of the data collected at the icy moon,” says Pommerol.

Promoting young talent in space research

Caroline Haslebacher, who has just completed her PhD in the same research group, joined the EIS science team through her doctoral supervisor Thomas. “I was happy that to give Caroline Haslebacher the opportunity to get involved in the EIS science team,” says Thomas. “Getting junior researchers on board at an early stage in these types of mission is life-changing.”

Haslebacher is developing a target database to help with planning for EIS imaging at Europa. She says: “The effort to develop a target database will help prioritize observations, which is important due to the limited time during flybys and data volume.” The young scientist is particularly excited about imaging of regions of Europa that have been seen previously at only low resolution, and will be imaged by EIS at an unprecedented pixel scale.

Synergies with “sibling mission” to Jupiter

Also involved in the Europa Clipper mission is Audrey Vorburger. She is an assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Bern and an expert in the field of mass spectrometry. She is a member of the science team for the MASPEX mass spectrometer which will study the chemistry of the moon’s suspected subsurface ocean, how the ocean and surface exchange material, and how radiation alters compounds on the moon’s surface.

Vorburger is also involved in ESA’s Juice space mission, which started its journey to Jupiter in April 2023. She is the lead scientist for the Neutral and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NIM), which was completely designed and built at the University of Bern. “In my opinion, Juice and Europa Clipper are like siblings: slightly different, but sharing many similarities,” says Vorburger. “For instance, eight out of the nine instruments on Europa Clipper have an equivalent on Juice.”

However, their mission profiles diverge significantly. Juice will explore the entire Jupiter system, ultimately entering orbit around Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede, while Europa Clipper will focus closely on Europa, providing the first detailed study of the icy moon.

Europa Clipper paves the way for the search for life

“Their similarities yet differences are what make them two such promising synergistic missions,” As Vorburger concludes: “Europa Clipper will provide invaluable information about Europa and lay the groundwork for future life-searching missions.”