Searching Europa

[absolutezero]

Here is just a couple of questions about Europa.<br /><br />It is thought to harbor liquid oceans beneath its surface of ice, probably nothing intelligent, but if there is any active life larger then bacteria in the solar system, this place would be it.<br /><br />Why isn't NASA jumping all over this moon to get a probe on the surface and through the ice to search for life? I would think it would be the most sought after mission of the solar system.<br /><br />Next question/comment. Do scientist know enough about Europa that at least make it a potential place for life, or is that why a mission hasn't been created for it? Do scientist feel that it simply cannot contain life?

 

[najab]

This thread is better suited in Space Science and Astronomy.

 

[CalliArcale]

I'll take my own layman's crack at those questions. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br /><b>Why isn't NASA jumping all over this moon to get a probe on the surface and through the ice to search for life? I would think it would be the most sought after mission of the solar system.</b><br /><br />They were -- until they ran into budget problems with the ISS, followed by a mandate to get to Core Complete, followed by refocusing on manned missions to Mars, followed by the Columbia tragedy. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /><br /><br />The first planned mission was called Europa Orbiter. It was part of a trio called the Fire & Ice Missions: Solar Probe, Europa Orbiter, and Pluto/Kuiper Express. All three were cancelled. PKE was ultimately resurrected after tremendous hue and cry from the astronomical community as the slimmed-down New Horizons mission. (Why did they focus on that? Because Europa will still be available in twenty years. But Pluto is very hard to get to, and its atmosphere is expected to freeze out into frost on the surface in the near future, as it recedes from the Sun. There isn't much time left to visit Pluto, and the next good chance won't come for centuries.)<br /><br />Europa Orbiter, already in advanced development phases, was intended to carry a radar sounder to determine the actual depth of the Europan ice sheet. This is critical information prior to any lander mission, because unless you know how deep the ice is, you can't know how far you have to drill to get to the ocean. Long-term, the dream is to send a "cryobot", which would drill or melt through the ice to get to the ocean, where it would release a little robotic submarine into the Europan ocean. But to get the most out of that mission, more needs to be known about Europa's ice. That will require something like Europa Orbiter.<br /><br />Right now, the best hope for a Europa mission is JIMO: Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. It is far from being a sure thing, but it's made it furt <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[najab]

><i>These three are probably the best candidates for extraterrestrial life, although you never know.</i><p>Someone once asked me for three predictions about ET life (actually they only asked for one, but I made three anyway - all good predictions come in threes <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />: (1) It's not what you think it is. (2) It's not where you think it is. (3) The answers to 1 and 2 will suprise you more than you think they will.</p>

 

[chebby]

Ah, so you do know about mice and dolphins already?

 

[bushuser]

I would add that the more extreme the conditions, then the more bizarre shall be the organism that evolves and survives in such a place.<br /><br />If there is life on Titan or Europa, it may be very difficult for us to recognize as "living".

 

[alokmohan]

Astrobiologists are yearning for the challenge.

 

[najab]

><i>It's a field of study, with the peculiar trait, that it has absolutely nothing real to study...</i><p>Theoretical physics comes to mind as another one. That's been going strong for 100 years now.<br /><br />*Edit* Plus, it's more appropriate to talk about astrobiology, than exobiology,</p>

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>There are real problems with Titan being any kind of harbor for life.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />There are real problems with any extraterrestrial body being any kind of harbor for life, frankly. The question was about possibilities. Titan remains one of the best candidates for extra-terrestrial life, even if it's hardly Earthlike. It's just that most of the other possibilities are considerably worse. Titan at least has free organics to work with, and a surprisingly dense atmosphere. You can't say that about places like Phoebe or Amalthea or Mercury.<br /><br />Fact is, if we do find extraterrestrial life, it's likely to be unlike anything we've got here on Earth, simply because the conditions elsewhere are (for the most part) unlike anything we've got here. So in the end, it's really all down to luck whether or not we'll find anything. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[thalion]

As someone who has had a longtime interest in Europa, I was devastated when they cancelled the Europa Orbiter mission, though for what it's worth I still think Pluto is a worthy target for a future mission. However, I have to admit that a Europa Orbiter would present a number of challenges.<br /><br />1.) Getting into orbit around the planet. This would require a relatively slow trajectory to reduce the necessary fuel to brake into orbit; in any event, the requirements would be considerable, and we'd probably be looking at several years of travel time, like Galileo.<br /><br />2.) Matching orbits with Europa. This would require yet more onboard fuel to reduce the eccentricity of the orbit, as well as a number of Galilean flybys to match orbits with Europa.<br /><br />3.) Orbiting Europa itself, which would require more fuel still to brake into orbit.<br /><br />4.) Radiation concerns. Though Europa is no Io when it comes to radiation, it's still a very harsh place for any spacecraft, and this would automatically limit the lifetime of any orbiter. In fact, IIRC, the Europa Orbiter mission itself was calculated to last no longer than a month or so before it was done it. <br /><br />I think these difficulties were part of the reason that some people balked at the concept, and why it was always going to be difficult to pull off a mission like this on the cheap, in the vaunted "Faster, Cheaper, Better" paradigm. The mission costs exceeded expectations quickly, and in tight budgetary times sounded the death knell for the mission.<br /><br />That said, I'd have to agree that I believe a Europa orbiter should be an exceedingly high priority. In fact, I favor Europa over Mars, even without the flashy volcanoes and ruddy deserts. Galileo's data, though not conclusive, was highly suggestive, and if there's *any* possibility of liquid water existing under the surface, then we should go for it. Something as simple as measuring its tidal flexing and thickness of its ice could b

 

[cyrostir]

another thing to think about is the bacteria/life ON any orbiter/probe. The micro-organisms have been known to survive the vaccum of space on spacecraft, without any food, so if we end up "finding" bacteria or such, it might just have been a stowaway on the craft. Even the clensing methods can't get rid of all the micro-organisms on NASA spacecraft....