Alien live on Europa, page 2

We will know more about Europa relatively soon (some question marks in the title would have been much appreciated, in my humble opinion)

NASA and ESA Prioritize Outer Planet Missions

Artist concept of proposed missions to the Jupiter system (left) and the Saturn system (right).
Image credit: NASA/JPL

February 18, 2009

At a meeting in Washington last week, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and European Space Agency officials decided to continue pursuing studies of a mission to Jupiter and its four largest moons, and to plan for another potential mission to visit Saturn's largest moon Titan and Enceladus.
Both of these proposed missions are grand endeavors that set the stage for future planetary science research. These outer planet flagship missions could eventually answer questions about how our solar system formed and whether life exists elsewhere in the universe.
The missions, called the Europa Jupiter System Mission and the Titan Saturn System Mission, are the result of NASA and ESA merging their separate mission concepts. NASA originally studied four mission concepts during 2007, which were narrowed down to two proposals in 2008. One finalist was a Europa Orbiter to explore that icy moon of Jupiter and its subsurface water ocean. The other was a Titan Orbiter to visit the Saturn moon.
Independently, in 2007, ESA also initiated a competition to select its flagship mission for the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 slot of the ESA scientific programme. Two finalists, called Laplace and Tandem, were selected by ESA for further study. Laplace was a set of spacecraft to orbit Jupiter and eventually orbit and land on Europa. Tandem was a set of spacecraft intended to orbit Titan and explore its surface, after also exploring the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
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The Europa Jupiter System Mission would use two robotic orbiters to conduct unprecedentedly detailed studies of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and its moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. NASA would build one orbiter, initially named Jupiter Europa. ESA would build the other orbiter, initially named Jupiter Ganymede. The probes would launch in 2020 on two separate launch vehicles from different launch sites. The orbiters would reach the Jupiter system in 2026 and spend at least three years conducting research. Europa has a surface of ice, and scientists theorize it has an ocean of water beneath that could provide a home for living things.

Can there be life elsewhere? A proposed mission to Jupiter’s icy moons would explore Europa and Ganymede.

(click to open player in new window)

Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO) Concept
JEO is the NASA element of the EJSM. It is designed to follow-up on the major discoveries of the Galileo and Voyager missions at Europa, especially its ocean. JEO will be built to withstand the intense radiation in Europa orbit, and would consist of an orbiter with 11 science instruments designed for extensive mapping of Europa. On the way to Europa, JEO will tour the Jovian system and make routine and frequent observations of Jupiter, its satellites and its environment. Additional information can be found in the EJSM Joint Summary Report ( opfm.jpl.nasa.gov... ).

Science Objectives

Europa’s Ocean: Characterize the extent of the ocean and its relation to the deeper interior
Europa’s Ice Shell: Characterize the ice shell and any subsurface water, including their heterogeneity, and the nature of surface-ice-ocean exchange
Europa’s Chemistry: Determine global surface compositions and chemistry, especially as related to habitability
Europa’s Geology: Understand the formation of surface features, including sites of recent or current activity, and identify and characterize candidate sites for future in situ exploration
Jupiter System: Understand Europa in the context of the Jupiter system

opfm.jpl.nasa.gov...
opfm.jpl.nasa.gov...
en.wikipedia.org...

PIA10149: Europa Tide Movie

(click to open player in new window)

Credits: NASA/JPL

In this movie Europa is seen in a cutaway view through two cycles of its 3.5 day orbit about the giant planet Jupiter. Like Earth, Europa is thought to have an iron core, a rocky mantle and a surface ocean of salty water. Unlike on Earth, however, this ocean is deep enough to cover the whole moon, and being far from the sun, the ocean surface is globally frozen over. Europa's orbit is eccentric, which means as it travels around Jupiter, large tides, raised by Jupiter, rise and fall. Jupiter's position relative to Europa is also seen to librate, or wobble, with the same period. This tidal kneading causes frictional heating within Europa, much in the same way a paper clip bent back and forth can get hot to the touch, as illustrated by the red glow in the interior of Europa's rocky mantle and in the lower, warmer part of its ice shell. This tidal heating is what keeps Europa's ocean liquid and could prove critical to the survival of simple organisms within the ocean, if they exist. The giant planet Jupiter is now shown to be rotating from west to east, though more slowly than its actual rate.

photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

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[edit on 23/4/2009 by internos]