NASA Readies 'Europa Clipper' Mission To Jupiter's Frozen Moon
NASA is still on track to use its new Space Launch System (SLS) to launch its $2 billion-plus 'Europa Clipper'* mission to Jupiter's fabled, frozen moon. That might even happen as early as Spring of 2022 and would involve a direct two and a half year transfer to our solar system's largest planet.
From article, (NASA is still on track to use its new Space Launch System (SLS) to launch its $2 billion-plus ‘Clipper’ mission to Jupiter’s moon of Europa. That might even happen as early as Spring of 2022 and would involve a direct two and a half year transfer to Jupiter. The goal once there would be to do 46 reconnaissance flybys of Europa over a three and a half year period. From a long orbit around Jupiter, Clipper should perform its Europa flybys at altitudes varying from 2700 to 25 kilometers above the moon's frozen surface.
The aim is to search this frozen world for signs of a subsurface liquid ocean and for habitability. Many astrobiologists still think that Europa offers the best chance of finding life elsewhere in our solar system.
And if NASA launches a follow-on Europa lander mission, astrobiologists may find biological treasure in one of its Europa samples long before a Mars sample-return mission could be attempted.
“To say Europa is or was habitable, we’d want to confirm there is an ocean; see evidence of chemistry in the ocean that can be a source of energy for life beneath the ice,” said Craft. “And see evidence of ice-ocean exchange processes that could enable chemical mixing.”
It’s thought to have a 100-kilometer-deep salty ocean, with an iron core surrounded by a rocky mantle. However, also as noted here previously, for life to evolve on Europa, it would need liquid water; a handful of essential elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur; and some sort of energy to harness.)
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