Europa Clipper will employ a Mars-Earth Gravity Assist (MEGA) trajectory, a complex path that utilises the gravitational fields of Mars and Earth to gain the necessary velocity for its journey to ...

Our solar system consists of Sun and celestial bodies bound to it by gravity, including planets ... the Sun at a speed of around 9.69 km/s. 5. Jupiter: The largest planet has an orbital speed ...

slingshotting around Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. The Clipper is scheduled to execute its first orbit around Jupiter in April 2030 and fly ...

Stephen has a science degree with a major in physics, an arts degree with majors in English Literature and History and Philosophy of Science and a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication.

Jupiter is located an average of 480 million miles from our planet, but the Europa Clipper will travel 1.8 billion miles to reach its destination. That's because it will gravity ‘assists' by ...

and then heading back to Earth for its second gravity assist flyby, in 2026. This will send it on course to Jupiter, which it will reach in April 2030. In all, Europa Clipper will travel 2.9 ...

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is now on its way to explore Europa, a moon of Jupiter slightly smaller than our moon but with big possibilities for currently existing life below its icy surface.

On Dec. 1, 2026, the spacecraft will get an Earth gravity assist and be thrown on a high-speed trajectory towards Jupiter, NASA's Europa Clipper mission page explains. Orbital scientists call this ...