Europa Clipper ice-penetrating radar passes its Mars flyby test, analysis shows

NASA/Europa Clipper

Analysis of data from Europa Clipper's March 2025 Mars gravity assist shows its REASON radar worked as designed, returning clear echoes of the Martian surface during a roughly 40-minute run. Such a test was impossible on the ground, because it would have needed a sterile chamber about 76 m long.

• Radar ran from about 3,100 to 550 miles above Mars.
• About 6 GB of data came back; full analysis began in mid-May 2025.
• At Europa it will fly as close as about 16 miles (25 km).
• Principal investigator Don Blankenship (University of Texas at Austin) called the test a full success.