5 ms·
The current nominal trajectory is on pages 6/7 of the first PDF I linked. It appears to be making ~40 near overpasses of the moon in the prime mission, some wi
by mturmon 9y ago
The current nominal trajectory is on pages 6/7 of the first PDF I linked. It appears to be making ~40 near overpasses of the moon in the prime mission, some within 25-50 km of the surface (red lines), which is really quite remarkable considering the distance from Earth, light-time delays, and complexity of the Jovian system.
I would conjecture that our gravimetric/orbital model of the Jovian system will be updated during initial orbits so that planning for the overpasses will be refined after arrival.
There has been discussion of putting a (hard) lander on the spacecraft, to drop into one of the plumes. Last I heard, there was Congressional interest in the idea, but for technical reasons, AFAIK, it is out-of-scope for Europa Clipper. I think it's in study for a successor mission.
It's generally better to not try to do everything with one mission, but to plan a campaign with various contingencies.