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NASA Gets $75 Million For Europa Mission
astroengine writes "It may not be a lander or an orbiter, but its something. Europa, one of Jupiter's largest moons, has been the focus of much scrutiny over its potential life-bearing qualities. It has an icy crust over a liquid water ocean and now salts have been detected on its surface, suggesting a cycling of nutrients from the surface to the interior. This only amplifies the hypothesis that Europa not only could support basic life, it could support complex life. But how can we find out? The proposed Europa Clipper received interest at NASA HQ last year as it would optimize the science while keeping the mission budget under $2 billion. It would be a spacecraft that will be in orbit around Jupiter, but make multiple flybys of Europa to assess the moon for its habitable qualities. Now, in a bill signed by President Obama and approved by lawmakers, $75 million has been allocated (for the remainder of this fiscal year) for a 'Jupiter Europa mission.' Could it represent the seed money for the Europa Clipper? We'll have to wait and see."
Clarke quote in five, three, two, one...
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there."
In Before 2001 Space Odyssey References...
Don't hide the truth NASA...you found a monolith on the moon didn't you?
...are yours except Europa, attempt no landing there.
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there."
I knew I should have made that left turn at Albuquerque.
That last one went over my head.
Albuquerque?
I'm sure that's what Congress spends on office supplies for a year.
Fast forward a few billion years to when the sun explodes and everyone is gonna be all over this place for its tourism potential. Invest now, and get in on the ground floor!
I am a huge fan of NASA and wish the budgets between the Pentagon and NASA were switched...more bombing runs on other planets, less on our own. But why is everythng a $2 billion (before inevitable overruns) project?
Each planetary mission is somehat different, but it really seems to me that they are re-inventing the wheel every time. What about standardizing on a vehicle platform, with some set instrumentation and a little room for customization if necessary. Make each one substantial enough (RTG's for power) And then start firing these off to Mercury, moons of Jupiter, Saturn, where-ever.
The launch cost of an Atlas V or Delta IV is somehere in the neighborhood of $150 million, so the other $1.8 billion is for mission development and support?
SpaceX, here's a tip...get into the science mission hardware game too.
It could be done in a two-stage process. First, find a modest asteroid and send it crashing down into Europa. Then send a probe through the hole the asteroid made in the ice, before the opening re-freezes.
From the Article: "Perhaps the $75 million seed money is a strong sign that NASA headquarters wants to see the Clipper take flight in 2021?"
We'll have a new president and administration by then. Even if we didn't, that's plenty of time for our government to change their minds, even multiple times. I'm not getting my hopes up.
This is absolutely scandalous! That money could be spent building bombs!
Here is the actual link to the bill (now law):
"For necessary expenses, not otherwise provided for, in the conduct and support of science research and development activities, including research, development, operations, support, and services; maintenance and repair, facility planning and design; space flight, spacecraft control, and communications activities; program management; personnel and related costs, including uniforms or allowances therefor, as authorized by sections 5901 and 5902 of title 5, United States Code; travel expenses; purchase and hire of passenger motor vehicles; and purchase, lease, charter, maintenance, and operation of mission and administrative aircraft, $5,144,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2014, of which up to $14,500,000 shall be available for a reimbursable agreement with the Department of Energy for the purpose of re-establishing facilities to produce fuel required for radioisotope thermoelectric generators to enable future missions: Provided, That $75,000,000 shall be for pre-formulation and/or formulation activities for a mission that meets the science goals outlined for the Jupiter Europa mission in the most recent planetary science decadal survey: Provided further, That the formulation and development costs (with development cost as defined under section 30104 of title 51, United States Code) for the James Webb Space Telescope shall not exceed $8,000,000,000: Provided further, That should the individual identified under subsection (c)(2)(E) of section 30104 of title 51, United States Code, as responsible for the James Webb Space Telescope determine that the development cost of the program is likely to exceed that limitation, the individual shall immediately notify the Administrator and the increase shall be treated as if it meets the 30 percent threshold described in subsection (f) of section 30104."
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
75 Million is a insignificant amount of money for them.
Why such a small amount?
At least they aren't planning on landing (yet).... If there's no life before we land a spacecraft on the Europa, there will be afterwards.
We should probably become better at sterilizing our spacecraft before we land one on a moon where water is known to exist, and seed its oceans with earth-based life.
$75 million will buy a little more than 3 F-16 Falcon fighter jets.
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Ever since I attended a SETI forum and panel of scientists discussing life on other planets, Cynthia Phillips said when looking for life, "go where the water is." And there's lots more water on Europa than on Mars. There are many challenges of a lander, drilling into the ice, launching a submarine, etc. Radiation is intense (until you get into the ice), Europa is much farther away, it hasn't been mapped extensively like Mars, navigation, time delay, etc, etc. But I cannot stop imagining of a submarine cruising in the waters below the ice taking video and pics of the little fishies swimming about (if any). However, I think finding microbes or plankton would be very exciting.
mfwright@batnet.com
- Carolyn Porco
To get good information on Europa, you really need a lander. You might not even need to drill - organics may flow up from the ocean and get frozen in the crust. But a lander is necessary to get actual samples. In fact, if they send that Curiosity clone they're planning to Europa instead of Mars again, it might get much more interesting results!
Enceladus, on the other hand, is like Soviet Russia: Because of its geysers, samples go to you.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
What kind of hotels are they staying in for that budget!?!
Are the orbital dynamics harder if you orbit Europa?
...in full effect. YAWN!
To get good information on Europa, you really need a lander. You might not even need to drill - organics may flow up from the ocean and get frozen in the crust. But a lander is necessary to get actual samples. In fact, if they send that Curiosity clone they're planning to Europa instead of Mars again, it might get much more interesting results!
There may be some fun 10 meter long ice blades ("penitentes") on the surface of Europa that would be amazing to see close up (though maybe not so great to land on). Dr Hobley: "We are expecting a band around the equator where it is spiky."
This is for meetings to select the Top Guys who will look into the challenges and opportunities, work up some papers on various potential solutions to investigate. Not to actually go anywhere yet. Except maybe DC and Florida. Pretty sure there will be some trips to DC and Florida.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Could it represent the seed money for the Europa Clipper?
It'd be so much cooler if it represented the seed money for a full scale Panther Clipper.
That's just enough for a few CGI shots, some websites and maybe a lunch. But I guess the private space probe market will just jump in, right?
NASA Dreams Small.
Even better, make them self assemble from raw materials found in the Solar System.
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I wonder if flying the probe between Jupiter and Io would be enough to sterilize the probe? Of course, the radiation and magnetic field might be enough to ruin the probe as well...
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It makes far more sense to send the red dragon. It can do it for a fraction of the price.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
But to get the answers the lander designers will need to know before they can design their equipment - you need flybys if not an orbiter. One step at a time, each building on the last.
Red dragon FLOATs. Send it to europa, along with the clipper. Once on the surface a number of experiments can be done and the data sent to clipper or home.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Look up Red Dragon.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Make sure they don't turn the lights on. Remember what happened to the Tsien when it landed on Europa.
Kriston
Does putting it in orbit around Europa cost more or something? Wouldn't that be a better solution than making flybys?
Not to disagree with your general sentiment, but:
Curiosity's landing system is deeply incompatible with a non-atmospheric moon landing. Mars's atmosphere dissipated 99.97% of Curiosity's kinetic energy. A Enceladus lander would have to do that solely with rockets.
J.E. Hansen, Dir. of the NASA GISS, a GISS employee for 46 years got the bad news from NASA on Monday.
Today, J.E. Hansen Director of the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Sciences (GISS), quits !
The 'Media' and much of the 'Blogsphere' are crying a river for their little "Jimmy Road His Boat Ashore Hale-a Lew Ya."
Well.
The Inspector General of NASA and the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce and the Inspector General ... have something else,
of the Department of Interior and the Inspector General of the White House in addition to a battalion of attorneys, legal
teams and council and the IRS Accountants and the Department of Justice Attorney General
very different, in mind for a one Mr. J.E. Hansen former Director of GISS.
What is kinda scary but an awesome thought is we can do all this with the tiny, pathetic budget that NASA gets. Imagine if we had a REAL budget like we use on our military or no budget (fantasy dreamland lol). We've put rovers on Mars with this tiny budget... imagine what we could do if we had the military's. God, we'd probably already be there with a base set up. lol
Pttthhh, I did it on a much smaller budget and got to see Paris, Rome and even Prague!!!!
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)