All systems go for Europa mission

[Panich52]

All systems go for Europa mission
Jun 21, 2015
by Deborah Byrd in Videos » Science Wire, Space

NASA has made it a major goal to explore the possibility of life beyond Earth. And Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of the most promising places to look, because, scientists believe, it has a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust. NASA said late last week (June 17, 2015) that its mission to explore Europa is moving forward from concept review to development. The mission’s goal is to conduct a detailed survey of Europa and investigate its habitability.

. ...

If it continues to pass through the various stages of review – and scientists connected with the mission, as well as space fans throughout the world, hope it will – a new spacecraft will be launched to Jupiter in the 2020s. It’ll take several years to travel to Jupiter. Since Europa is bathed in radiation from Jupiter, which would be harmful to a spacecraft orbiting the moon itself – the craft will go into orbit around Jupiter. It’ll orbit the giant planet about every two weeks, and sweep in many times for close flybys of Europa.

The mission plan includes 45 flybys, during which the spacecraft would image the moon’s icy surface at high resolution and investigate its composition and the structure of its interior and icy shell.


More
http://earthsky.org/space/all-systems-go-for-europa-mission?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=d17e8769fe-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-d17e8769fe-393525109

[Wounded Bear]

1. Exciting stuff. Let's hope that they can maintain financing. nt