The Europa Mission

The Project

In 2023 I was contracted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to document the final year of the Europa mission. For one intense year, working on lab in Pasadena and following the science team around the country, I documented activities surrounding the construction and launch of NASA's most ambitious unmanned spacecraft, the Europa Clipper.

My Role

• Document every mission milestone, including the assembly of the spacecraft and its components in clean rooms, system test/readiness activities on lab, and events important to the mission wherever and whenever they occur.
• Identify and interview key scientists, engineers, and technicians.
• Co-produced, photograph, and edit news features which translate scientific concepts into clear and engaging videos for a large audience.
• Design explanatory graphics and 2D animations from presentations.
• Build and organize a mission media archive.

The Impact

• Within a year I produced a dozen news features profiling the mission, totalling over 300,000 views on YouTube alone.
• My work documenting the construction of the Europa Clipper has been used repeatedly by NASA+ (NASA's own streaming channel) and in a spectrum of independent planetary science videos which have garnered millions of views.

Produced by A. Penta and R. Villanueva | Photographed & Edited by A. Penta | 2D by A. Penta | 3D by K. Lane

"Gowning up" and documenting the construction of the Europa Clipper in High Bay 1.

The Spacecraft Makers

Real Engineering — The Insane Engineering of Europa Clipper
I photographed all of the clean room video used in this terrific Europa Clipper documentary, which has 1.4 million views!