Mission to Europa!

[Pilotasso]

The Jovian moon not the continent!

Seems NASA is to launch an ambitious mission to search life in Europans ocean. Don't hold your breath though it will take time (ETA at moon in 2030's)

 

 

source:

http://io9.com/nasa-plans-a-robotic-mission-to-search-for-life-on-euro-1536803742

 

I wish they had a kick starter for this, would love to leave a print on the program!

[Exorcet]

I'm still waiting for them to get to Pluto next year, but this will be a nice mission to watch afterwards. The prospect of finding life is huge.

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

This is really cool mission.

 

Also, anybody who has a chance should visit NASA Space Center in Houston. To experience incredible engineering and achievement of man and women in space exploration.

[badger66]

I'm still waiting for them to get to Pluto next year

 

When are they due to reach Uranus ? ;)

[Vekkinho]

LOL!

[Sanch0]

I wish they had a kick starter for this, would love to leave a print on the program!

Let's make own kickstarter! We can be first :D

[Speed]

Yes, I saw this the other day. It's long overdue. It's due to the fact that they seemed to have discovered water geysers on Europa that shoot water out far enough to be sampled in a flyby.

 

However, I don't understand why in the heck the Galileo spacecraft never spotted these geysers. Didn't it measure Europa's atmosphere? Or was that something else that measured Europa's thin oxygen atmosphere? Did Galileo lack the instruments?

 

Anyway, until I'm sure of the certainty of the Europa geyser discovery, I will keep my excitement guarded. But I sure as HELL don't understand why Europa is not a higher priority. The surface of Europa is NOT old- it has very few impact craters. That means that the ocean must be serving as a source for resurfacing the moon in some manner. Which means, if there are lifeforms in Europa's ocean, getting a (dead) sample of them may be as "easy" as getting a surface sample.

 

Obviously, some parts of Europa's crust are newer than others, and you want to go for one of the newer areas. You might also want to dig down a meter or two below the surface with a drill and get a sample that was less damaged by radiation. We'd want to know if Europan life was related to Earth life, or if it represented a separate genesis. That would require a DNA analysis- if this hypothetical Europan life even uses DNA, that is. DNA is fragile and gets destroyed in harsh radiation environments, so that's why you'd probably want to dig down a few meters if possible.

 

Anyway, I do think that Europan life would probably represent a second genesis. It is much harder for life to hitch a ride on a meteorite from Earth to Europa, or vice-versa. First, the distances are much greater, and secondly, Jupiter's gravity requires a high escape speed on outgoing rocks, and on incoming rocks, it accelerates them to VERY high velocities. Additionally, Europa has no atmosphere to cushion a rock crashing into it, so any life on board a rock would almost certainly be annihilated in the extreme deceleration and heat of the impact. A rock crashing into Europa is subjected to FAR more extreme deceleration and shock than one crashing into Earth, Mars, or Venus.

 

One more exciting thing I heard about Europa is that a few years ago, I read that a planetary scientist predicted that Europa's ocean could in fact be oxygenated.

 

The way this is possible is that basically, Jupiter's harsh radiation environment bombards the surface of Europa with radiation, and the Sun also shines UV light on it. Both of these forms of radiation cause some of the water molecules in the icy crust of Europa to dissociate into hydrogen and oxygen. We already know that Europa has a VERY thin oxygen atmosphere due to this effect. Anyway, the radiation is able to penetrate into the ice a few meters, and some of the oxygen gets trapped there, in the crustal ice.

 

The second step occurs when this oxygenated ice gets subducted into Europa's ocean layer and melts. The oxygen that was trapped in the ice now gets dissolved into Europa's ocean water!

 

So not only could there be simple lifeforms on Europa, there could also be oxygen-breathing lifeforms, possibly even, multicellular oxygen-breathers. IF this researcher's findings are true, that is. I need to look up and see if I can find this paper, and see to what extent this researcher's findings have been rebutted or disputed.