According to MSNBC, NASA is studying a mission to land two robotic probes on the surface of Europa. Were the Europa landers to be approved, they would be launched as early as 2020 and would arrive at Jupiter's moon six years later.
Why land on Europa?
According to NASA, Europa is slightly smaller than Earth's moon and orbits Jupiter every 3.5 days. It has an iron core, a rocky mantle, and a surface ocean of salty water encased in ice. Tidal forces provide more heat on Europa than would normally be the case for a celestial body that far away from the sun. Thus, scientists speculate, the interior oceans of Europa could be the abode of life, probably in the oceans beneath the ice layer. Some have suggested that Europa is a better candidate for having extraterrestrial life than does Mars, currently the object of an extensive program of robotic exploration.
What would the Europa lander mission consist of?
There would be two landers, much like the Viking landers that first explored Mars in the 1970s, to provide a measure of redundancy. Each lander would be equipped with a mass spectrometer, to search for organic chemicals, and seismometers and several different cameras to study Europa's unique geology. To save weight, the landers would not carry a great deal of radiation shielding. This would mean, thanks to the heavy radiation environment around Jupiter, the landers would have the lifespan of about a week to complete their mission.
The Europa landers would not so much attempt to detect life-though that discovery would be remarkable-but to ascertain if the moon of Jupiter could support life. There are no firm cost estimates for the mission, but it is thought that the Europa landers would cost everywhere from $800 million to $2 billion.
What else may be in the future for Europa exploration?
Currently NASA is looking at a hugely expensive joint venture with the European Space Agency called the Europa Jupiter System Mission. One element of that effort would be a probe that would orbit Europa to study it remotely, ascertaining how the ice layer interacts with the ocean underneath it, for instance. Scientists believe that an exchange of organic compounds between the ice and the ocean may lead to microbial life in Europa's subsurface water. This mission would also launch in 2020 with the Europa orbiter arriving off the moon of Jupiter in 2028. However, as the EJSM would cost almost $5 billion, funding for it is uncertain.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times and The Weekly Standard.
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