The Wings of Europa Clipper set to Sail in 2024

In this podcast Melanie Boylan returns to speak to Jordan Evans the Deputy Project Director of the Europa Clipper Mission about what the mission is setting out to do and what difference this will make with its findings.

Jordan Evans 

He was born in New Jersey and moved to Southern California when he was 3. While in college, he had internships at Edwards Air Force Base and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. After finishing his undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering, he went to work for Northrop on the B-2 Stealth Bomber. He the decided his true calling was space, so his wife and himself moved to Maryland and he went to work at NASA Goddard in the Advanced Applications Section. 

He spent many years there and really enjoyed it. While at Goddard he worked on numerous studies and proposals and pursued his Master’s Degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. He then worked on the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) as the Mechanical Systems Manager and on Wide Field Camera – 3 (for the Hubble Space Telescope) as a Lead Systems Engineer. As opportunities arose, he and his family then moved to Phoenix, Arizona, so that he could be closer to their family in California and he could work as the Chief Engineer/Deputy Program Manager for the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) at Spectrum Astro, Inc. 

While at Spectrum, he met several people from JPL and knew that the type of work that is done there that it's the type of work that he wanted to do.  So he and his wife and two daughters moved to the Pasadena area in early 2004 and he has thoroughly enjoyed the Caltech/JPL culture and the exciting missions that he has so far had the privilege to work on.

Europa Clipper

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will conduct a detailed survey of Jupiter's moon Europa to determine whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life. The spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, will make about 45 close passes over Europa, shifting its flight path for each flyby to soar over a different location so that it eventually scans nearly the entire moon.

After each flyby, the spacecraft will send its haul of data back to Earth. The time between flybys will also give scientists time to study the data and consider adjusting the timing and trajectory of future flybys if they find regions that spark curiosity and need more study.