EUROPA ICONS: A NEW NASA UNDERGRADUATE PLANETARY SCIENCE INTERNSHIP TO CREATE A MORE DIVERSE EUROPA SCIENCE COMMUNITY (Invited Presentation)

NASA is dedicated to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) efforts and has recognized that, to achieve its mission and goals, these efforts must be fully integrated into all its actions.

As part of NASA’s Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, NASA aims to build a diverse future STEM workforce by engaging students in authentic learning experiences with NASA’s workforce, including those involved in mission science teams. Because underrepresentation in the field of planetary science is a known issue, with low proportions of historically marginalized groups participating in NASA Planetary Science Division (PSD) funded activities, PSD has initiated a new internship program to partially address this issue.

The new Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generations Scientists) internship program pairs members of the Europa Clipper science team with undergraduate STEM students in order to create a Europa science community that is more reflective of the US population and to broaden participation in planetary mission science.

The inaugural summer session spanned 10 weeks between June and August 2024. Forty undergraduate STEM majors were paired with 33 Europa Clipper science team members at their institutions to conduct original scientific research about Europa related to Europa Clipper’s science objectives. These students were competitively selected from more than 650 students, with preference given to students at non-R1 institutions; approximately one-quarter of the students are enrolled at R1 institutions. Students were selected from 18 states and Puerto Rico. Approximately three-quarters of the selected students are sophomores or juniors. Several ICONS students are also participants in Europa ICONS partner program, Here To Observe (H2O).

The Europa ICONS program is managed by PSD within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. and is part of a larger effort known as Clipper Next Gen, a decade-long strategy using the Europa Clipper mission to train and diversify the next generation of planetary scientists.