WASHINGTON: NASA, on Tuesday, said it has chosen a trove of instruments to send to Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa, as it moves ahead press forward with its search for evidence if the orb could support life.
The nine gadgets – from cameras to radars to magnetic field gauges – will be used to try to determine if Europa has an ocean beneath its glacial surface, as scientists have long suspected.
Europa, which is about the size of Earth’s moon, could have twice the amount of water as our own planet, Nasa said.
Scientists are keen to find out for sure, and the nine devices will be sent to Europa sometime in the 2020s. “We’re excited about the potential of this new mission and these instruments to unravel the mysteries of Europa in our quest to find evidence of life beyond Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for Nasa’s science mission directorate.
The instruments will be looking for a few key indicators to suggest if Europa can in fact support life: salt water, a rocky sea floor, and energy and chemistry created by tidal heating.
“Europa could be the best place in the solar system to look for present day life beyond our home planet,” Nasa said.
The mission to Europa could come with a $30 million price tag, which the space agency has already requested in its 2016 budget.
The fact-finding trip would entail sending a spacecraft to Jupiter’s moon, which would orbit Europa, getting as close as 16 miles from its icy surface at times.
