The Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM) is a

spacecraft magnetometer Spacecraft magnetometers are magnetometers used aboard spacecraft and satellites, mostly for scientific investigations, plus attitude sensing. Magnetometers are among the most widely used scientific instruments in exploratory and observation sa ...

aboard the planned '' Europa Clipper'' mission. It will be used to precisely measure

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europe * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Cliff ...

's magnetic field during consecutive fly-bys, allowing scientists to potentially confirm the existence of Europa's hypothesised subsurface ocean. If this ocean exists, the instrument will be able to determine its depth and salinity, as well as the thickness of the moon's icy shell. The magnetometer team is led by

Margaret Kivelson Margaret Galland Kivelson (born October 21, 1928) is an American space physicist, planetary scientist, and Distinguished Professor Emerita of Space Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. From 2010 to the present, concurrent with he ...

, with Xianzhe Jia serving as deputy team leader.

Overview

The ECM is a highly sensitive and precise

magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, o ...

used to measure small changes in the characteristics of Europa's magnetic field, studying how they vary according to time and location. The instrument will be stowed in a canister at launch, and will have a total of three flux-gate sensors attached to it. It will deploy to its full length of 8.5 meters (25 feet) in the days after launch. The spacecraft contains over 300 individual sources of magnetic interference, such as magnets in the propulsion valves, and current loops in the solar arrays. As a result, the instrument will be mounted on an 8.5 meter boom to reduce the effect of this contamination, but will still need to be carefully calibrated in order to account for the effects of these artificial sources. ECM-Fluxgate-Sensor-Large

Originally, a more complex multi-frequency magnetometer ( ICEMAG) was planned for inclusion aboard Europa Clipper. This instrument was ultimately scrapped, and later replaced with ECM due to cost overruns.

Objectives

The primary objectives of the ECM instrument are: * Confirm the existence of a subsurface ocean under Europa's icy surface * If an ocean does exist, accurately measure its depth and salinity * Characterize the ice shell by determining its thickness

References

{{Future spaceflights Europa (moon) Europa Clipper 2024 in spaceflight Orbiters (space probe) NASA programs Missions to Jupiter Proposed NASA space probes Proposed astrobiology space missions

Overview

Objectives

See also

References