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NASA Appointed Team Set Out Priorities For a Europa Surface Mission
astroengine writes "Europa has only been seen from afar, but its aura of intrigue has inspired scientists to study ideas as to how to explore the icy Jovian moon. In a new study published in the journal Astrobiology [paper], a NASA-appointed science definition team lays out the rich tapestry of discovery facing any mission to study Europa, but what questions do we need answering? 'If one day humans send a robotic lander to the surface of Europa, we need to know what to look for and what tools it should carry,' said Robert Pappalardo, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the study's lead author. 'There is still a lot of preparation that is needed before we could land on Europa, but studies like these will help us focus on the technologies required to get us there, and on the data needed to help us scout out possible landing locations. Europa is the most likely place in our solar system beyond Earth to have life today, and a landed mission would be the best way to search for signs of life.'"
As we've discovered, life is pretty resiliant. It can survive in a vaccum, it can survive radiation, it can feed on all kinds of chemicals and environments... and every year we discover life has found a new way to exist in a previously-thought inhospitable environment. We even have self-replicating proteins (prions) that are so resistant that medical tools used on someone infected with mad cow have to be thrown away after, because they can't be adequately disinfected.
I'd be very interested in knowing how NASA plans on disinfecting its spacecraft prior to launch so it doesn't wind up detecting now, or years or centuries down the line, what we brought with us.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
That artist's rendering was awesome, but I want to see some photos taken from landers. Not a bad article.
Free Martian Whores!
ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. Filter error: Don't use so many caps.
Does she have a role in this team? I didn't see her name except in references. Cynthia gave interesting presentations about Europa, "When looking for life, go where the water is." Her bio at http://www.seti.org/users/cphillips
On another thread... alright you guys, cue in the references from "2010"....
mfwright@batnet.com
Could be life there, but, we will search for it in the right places? Some potential places for life could be hard to reach for a robotic probe that we could send. And will we be able to recognize it as life, if is different enough from what we have here?
The only thing we could missing is the sound of a thousand alien mating frogs.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
If it is indeed a 'garden spot' for life, we should be extra careful to not send any wayward seeds with our robotic emissaries.
"Oh, hello deep-dwelling sentient beings. Yeah, sorry about those microbes that got stuck to our probe and seem to be causing your extinction."
O The Embarrassment.
#1 tool a robot probe could carry to Europa: a human.
Seriously, is it any wonder no one watches launches any more?
Watching a robot probe go anywhere is "Great, Skynet explores another planet without us: big deal".
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa.
Attempt no landing there.
Use them together.
Use them in peace."
We're boned.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
It hasn't worked well so far. There have been a few failed penetrator probes but I wonder if Europa is the place to make it work. Identify a soft spot in the ice and power straight down.
Or take advantage of the smooth icy surface and try a variant on the martian airbag lander. No doubt it would roll for a few hundred km and finish up in a low spot, but it saves you 1.5 km/s of delta-v.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Have we ever sent a person where it was certain, and known to them, that they would die?
Tons of military missions. I guess we could recruit death row inmates as astronauts...
http://www.underview.com/funbits.html
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
What the JPL team is stating is "Do we go in with a condom or raw?"
Going in with a condom can take decades; this IS Obama's preferred solution ... because he will not be the President to have to OK or NOT OK it. Har de har har.
Rawing it ... the JPL solution ... will just do it and learn along the way in a series of stages to reach the intended goal. A drill rig on Europa and penetrating the ice cover, without contamination, to the ocean below, retrieving several samples and returning the samples to Earth for analysis and study.
This IS JPL at best and Obama at worst.
What say YOU.
We were supposed to leave that one alone....
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Can we give the NSA, DHS, CIA budget to NASA? You know, let's do something as a people. The only difference between the U.S. and other great empires, is that the U.S. government and leaders give fuck all about artistic, philosophical, and scientific endeavors. You know, the stuff that gives us dignity as a people. They use to. Or at least pretended to.
Man, do I oft times wish I lived in a different culture. I'm sick of this fascist corporate utilitarianism. What's the progress? The only thing the U.S. gave to the world was done by our impoverished and enslaved. Now, we can't even have viable land to grow for our personal needs.
France could sound cool; you have to give props to a culture that created Joan of Arc. What current cultures are there that welcome such endeavors? Really, I want to know.
Reminds me of "The Diamond Moon", volume 5 of the "Venus Prime" book serie by Paul Preuss (based on novels by Arthur C Clarke, again him!).
They explore Europa by drilling into the ice layer and using a submarine to navigate the water below. Interesting books for sci-fi fans!
Europa is an excellent place as is Saturn's Titan. Both should be explored. Why? Because it is a freaking awesome thing to do! Whether it is skating on an icy surface or sailing on sailing on a sea of methane, both are fantastic challenges. Too bad decades of space exploration cost cutting have reduced the amount of exploration awesomeness.
that would be sensible I think (why did you post AC?), because lifting the fuel required for a trip like this, from Earth, would be ridiculous... better to harvest raw materials for fuel from someplace with a shallower gravity well (like the Moon, they just found permanent water ice in the polar craters - bonus!) and launch the big leg of the mission from low orbit there. Advantages: no atmosphere to deal with, you can orbit as low as you like - you can buzz the mountains. Launching from low orbit (not static launch site - orbit) is the most fuel efficient way to go. For that matter, build the mission in low Lunar orbit, fuel it up from Lunar ground stations maybe using robotic shuttles then you're good to go, you wouldn't even have to send any humans up there until the spacecraft is fully ready and fueled.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Europa Report
Funniest part was when ground control plays the 2001 waltz to the crew as they leave earth orbit.
"You saved 1968." - Ms. Valerie Pringle to the crew of Apollo 8
What right does NASA have to set priorities for a European surface mission?
Shouldn't that be up to the Europeans to decide what their priorities are for their own surface?
Typical Americans always trying to tell other people how to run things and --
Wait, what?
That's "Europa the moon of Jupiter" not "Europe the continent on Earth"?
Oh.
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