MAE 298 SEMINAR: Europa Clipper Mission Design

Abstract: Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, has been a prime target for space exploration. NASA’s 
flagship mission Europa Clipper, designed to assess the moon’s potential habitability, was 
launched in October 2024 and is currently en route to Jupiter. Upon arrival in 2030, it will perform 
a complex gravity assist trajectory (tour) with more than 50 flybys to Jovian moons until 2034. 
This lecture unveils the decade-long design process of this 10-year interplanetary trajectory with 
the enabling techniques of orbital mechanics.

Bio: Stefano Campagnola is a mission designer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an orbital mechanics 
instructor at Caltech. He has worked at ESA/ESOC and JAXA/ISAS for a decade prior to moving 
to JPL in 2016. He was mission design manager for Europa Clipper and contributed to the 
trajectory design of BepiColombo, JUICE (ESA); MMX, Destiny, EQUULEUS (JAXA); Europa 
Clipper, Lunar Trailblazer, Lunar Flashlight (NASA); among other missions. His research interests 
include space mission design, optimal control, astrodynamics and nonlinear dynamical systems