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NASA Wants To Go To Europa
MightyMartian writes "'NASA and the White House are asking Congress to bankroll a new intrastellar road trip to a destination that's sort of like the extraterrestrial Atlantis of our solar system — Jupiter's intriguing moon, Europa.' Since Europa seems one of the most likely worlds in the Solar System other than Earth where we have some hope of finding extant life, let's hope Congress gives the green light to this project."
"All These Worlds Are Yours Except Europa. Attempt No Landing There. Use Them Together. Use Them in Peace."
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Maybe I can find some nubile girls on Europa!
All these worlds
are your except
Europa
attempt no
landing there
Except Europa. Attempt no landings there.
Sounds hot!
Ezekiel 23:20
But its buried beneath 100 miles of ice. If they're expecting to find some trace of life in some trace of water vapour that may or may not have been ejected near where the probe lands in the few days before any DNA or proteins would be destroyed by the hard vacuum and radiation then I think its wishful thinking at best. At worst a waste of multi billion dollars when it could be spent on other more fruitful missions. Another probe to Titan that could travel around and examine the lakes and atmosphere would be far more worth while.
...NSA is already all over Europe.
Don't wake the Wraith.
Mister Senator, I think we can explode Europa...before the Chinese.
It will also interfere with their plan to teach that the Earth is a the center of the universe, and the eventual mandate to make it official policy that the world is flat.
That will put the godless atheists in their place: in the lower left corner of the flat world, where the climate is terrible and all the icky stuff collects at the bottom.
Why is Snark Required?
While exploring space is many people's dream. The cost is enormous and the US has so much debt now, should we really be investing in our dreams
vs repairing roads and bridges? This is a expenditure that has so little monetary payback. If we do decide to spend money chasing dreams. Let's hope we
continue with unmanned exploration rather then manned. The cost savings is huge and why risk human life chasing planets that have little hope for current life.
I think we are settling for exploring close planets just because we have no technology to go to where we actually do believe life could survive.
This is like taking a vacation to the big ball of twine vs Disney Land because you can't afford it.
We have a mission.
Then another one that lands and tries some new water fueling technology whatever it may be: for fuel cells and hydrogen fuel or something.
Then it's developed further so not only is Europa a moon for exploration but also a fueling stop.
And I also dream of the day when we can say that we can't go to war because of budget issues: we got a space mission on after all!
And I wish for the day when people bitch and moan about military spending and saying, "Look! The Chinese and Russians are WAY ahead of us in space exploration! WTF do we need another fucking aircraft carrier! We need another rocket!!"
But I am crazy and stupid.
... /. is turning into Reddit
You just realize that ?
No, don't tell me that you just found /.
Initially, going to Europa indeed was a joint project between NASA and Europe's ESA, named EJSM ( Europa Jupiter System Mission):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...
Then a couple of years ago ESA announced that any talks with NASA being unconclusive (not bringing commitment), Europe would move alone; the mission was simplified, now called Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE), fully European-funded, and scheduled for 2020.
It *is* developing right now.
IMHO there is still room for cooperating here.
Herve S.
"I think we are settling for exploring close planets just because we have no technology to go to where we actually do believe life could survive."
You can't expect to successfully run a marathon on Saturday after if you haven't run a single mile in the past decade. Each step in exploration requires a previous step of smaller magnitude. Often it's the things we're not looking for when we explore that allow us to go further or explore deeper in future missions.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Doesn't mean it's going to happen - but I'm open to congress funding it.
Someone should look up the meaning of interstellar, this trip although close wouldn't even be interplanetary.
What possible value could there be in finding extraterrestrial life? Why should this be a goal of science or society?
There is only one explanation: those in rebellion against nature, who in their hubris cannot see the beauty and wonder of God's work, constantly strive to prove to themselves they are subject to no higher laws or powers than themselves. They do not wish to believe that God created man, and continue to cling to this fantastically improbable theory that has no evidence that life evolved spontaneously from some random chemical reactions, and produced - us!.
It doesn't matter how scientists have spent 100 years attempting to observe the transformation of one species into another, even down to the tiniest, simplest bacteria. It doesn't matter how the recently discovered tertiary structure of DNA makes the complexity orders of magnitude greater, making a random event exponentially less likely.
Fuck Europa.
They didn't have a flag. ...or this gun that I lent from the national rifle association.
FAIL. Try Interplanetary.
Listen to the Beastie Boys...
Interstellar would be a cool trip also, and more probable of finding life than under 100 miles of ice on Europa. Of course there is that extra mileage charge on the rental, and the roaming fees would bankrupt you...
}#q NO CARRIER
Intrastellar - I don't think that word means what the submitter thinks it means. This is within the solar system.
I thought this said the NSA wanted to go to Eurpoa. :-D
I was gonna pay for the ticket.
NASA has been trying to gut the planetary exploration programs for the last few years to feed the pork-barrel manned missions. This is a very odd turn of events. Stealing money from real science (un-manned missions from JPL/ Pasadena) to feed the pork monster (manned missions from Houston) is not new. In fact Carl Sagan started the Planetary Society to stop this poaching way back when.
We spend about 1% of our federal budget on space exploration. Yet we can find the "necessity" to burn over 18% of our budget on "defense" which trumps the next dozen or so countries defense spending COMBINED. I'm not saying that we should bankrupt our country exploring space, but a little realignment of our priorities is in order in addition to balancing our budget.
And for a moment, I thought that they are coming to Europa (continent) in the hope of better funding :P
Maybe it would help if they offered to takeCongress along with them for the ride. While they are at it there is no reason to leave the whitehouse out. They can even save some fuel by not bringing them back!
This may be a good story to point out that the Space Dub group Sagan Youth Boys uploaded a track from their upcoming album that tracks a voyage to and into Europa.
https://soundcloud.com/sagan-y...
Radio chatter sourced from NASA recordings of Luca Parmitano's July 16th 2013 spacewalk.
What NASA Headquarters is proposing is not a mission, it's a recipe for failure. They want to spend no more than $1 billion on a mission we planetary scientists have told them costs $2 billion.
Suppose you're planning a trip for two to New Zealand. You've got the budget all worked out: airfare costs about half of the total, even during the off-season, and you're skimping on hotels and meals and skipping the helicopter tour to save money. Then your spouse comes along and says you can only spend half as much. You can't make the plane tickets any cheaper, so unless you consider sleeping in the Auckland airport a vacation, she's saying you're not going to New Zealand at all.
It costs a billion dollars to send a bucket of bricks to Europa. Doing science once you get there is extra.
These types of projects aren't likely to get publicly funded because too much of tax revenue is now required to be spent on entitlements. Whether this was intentional or not is debatable but the unintended consequences are clear. A project like this getting shot down will disappoint some people but they will get over it. Private space companies will have to take this on.
The parent disincludes African American examples of inventions like peanut butter, peanut oil and other products in his list. Chinese and Arabic people are still mostly fair skinned. There is no mention of any subsaharin invention whatsoever, now whose racist?
I thought it said EUROPE.
eruopA makes so much more sense
Seriously, if they use 2 FHs to launch, they can send a red dragon and several orbital crafts on the first one, with a fully fueled tug on the second. Then send 2 orbiters along with the red dragon to land.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
At least NASA is trying to jumpstart the near-death federal space agency. But, Europa is a no-go for budgetary reasons this year or any other year in the last years (small number) of the embattled cold-war agency.
The real place to go, and China and ESA will likely get there is Titan!
Titan has cryo-refined petroleum distillates right on the surface and ready to be sucked up by a long hose and inter-planetary dirigible to be slow-boated back to Earth using nothing more than the Sun's gravity field after a nudge from Saturn's gravity well, and sold for CASH!
Just imagine the gasoline commercials of the future: "I drive with Titan in my tank!"
Money talks!
And its all on Titan just waiting to be sucked up.
Didn't they listen to the aliens? They said "All these worlds are yours except Europa..Attempt No landing there."
Why should we fund nasa ? There's no moon base yet JFK why are they stealing your gold still ? They should be we're you are sir!
We'll never really know if we don't go look. How much is this kind of knowledge worth?
Since Europa seems one of the most likely worlds in the Solar System other than Earth where we have some hope of finding extant life
i think we already found life on earth.
You insensitive clods!
But I haven't got the money.
Stick Men
That's how we define what is called "history". If it happened before writing existed, it's not part of history.
Although, to be fair, Catholic missionaries destroyed a lot of written records from pre-Columbian America. They literally deleted Inca history.
Point A: Earth.
Point B: Jupiter.
(Point B1: Europa.)
From one planet to another, inside the same solar system. Terms are completely accurate as used. Hell, Earth and Jupiter aren't even orbitally adjacent.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Well, I wondered from the headline, how long it would take for the applicable quote to show up, turned out to be first post. Amazing.
But. if you are going to plagiarize from one of Sci-Fi's truly great writers, unfortunately now past tense, at least give him credit for writing it.
Sir Arther C. Clark, T.B.E.
Sheesh, the chutzpah of some who write on /. knows no bounds.
I saw Europa Report - reminded me that even if we do find a few radioactive squids (which we won't) it won't matter and will become mundane news quickly and rightfully so. It also won't answer any theological or philosophical questions. Agnostic scientists still can't get around the fact that the universe is so finely tuned and the cosmological constant is back on the table, making it even more finely tuned. Creationists will always have a case. And rightfully so. A cold baron ice orb soaked in radiation is of no interest to me whatsoever. Please don't waste your money NASA. The James Webb telescope is in danger of being cancelled. Why not put the money there. A mission to Europa would cost a billion - which is what we need to complete James Webb. This initial fund is just the cost of prep. for design of the mission.
Seriously, we should put someone like you in charge of landing a probe on Mars. Oh wait...
"Wishful thinking" is not it at all. Just cause you don't understand the specifics doesn't mean NASA isn't aware that they are expected to get something, and less likely to get $$$ in the future if they don't.
It didn't go so well the last time we went there.
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
For a split second I thought the article read "NASA moving to Europe". Come to think of it it wouldn't be such a bad Idea. Perhaps combining all the countries space efforts under a single roof would see a hell of a lot more progress than individual countries trying to get out into space.
It would be like the LHC but with NASA, ESA, China, India, etc. cooperating together to go to other planets within our solar system and beyond.
Wow, what a world that would be.
...and I want them to go there (and not come back)
Nein! You cannot come to Europa! We have turn it into a fortress!!! Now, to prepare for Operation Sealion!!!!
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)