EUROPE: It’s likely to be a decade or more before NASA begins an up-close study of Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter that’s thought to harbor a habitable ocean — but the space agency has already picked out the scientific instruments for the job.
“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,” John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said Tuesday in an announcement laying out the lineup.
The instruments will fly aboard a spacecraft that’s due to make 45 or more flybys of Europa over the course of three years, Europa program scientist Curt Niebur said. The closest flyby would pass 16 miles (26 miles) above the icy surface. NASA expects the mission to launch sometime in the 2020s, but many of the details — including the precise cost and the launch vehicle — still have to be worked out.
During a Tuesday news conference, Niebur said the spacecraft won’t carry a “life detector,” because scientists don’t yet know enough about Europa’s interior to answer the big question. But the probe’s instruments should be able to determine whether the watery ocean that scientists assume lies beneath Europa’s ice is habitable.
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