Blue Dot

Blue Dot: Epic mission to an ocean world: Europa Clipper

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Europa Clipper depicted in orbit.

NASA

Host Dave Schlom examines the Europa Clipper mission, set for launch in the fall of 2024, to explore Jupiter's giant icy moon. Europa is an ocean world covered in a sheet of ice.

It contains more liquid water than Earth does, making it a prime target in the search for life beyond Earth.

Dave talks to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory planetary scientist and Europa Clipper science team member Jennifer Scully about this intriguing icy satellite of Jupiter, then delves into the engineering aspects of the mission with Europa Clipper engineer David Levine.

In the final segment, Dave visits with the Poet Laureate of the United States about her poem, written especially for the mission, titled "In Praise of Mystery: a poem for Europa."

Dave Schlom

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.

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Matt Fidler

Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.

See stories by Matt Fidler