NASA confirms ocean lunar mission

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Scientists working on a bold mission in the oceanic world of Europa can proceed to the final design and construction of the spacecraft, says NASA.

The Europa Clipper mission will target the ice-encrusted Jupiter moon, considered a prime target in the search for life beyond the Earth.

Below its ice shell, it is thought that the Europa can contain a body of water with a depth of 170 km.

This could have the right conditions for biology.

The Europa Clipper mission, scheduled for launch in 2025, has just reached a milestone called "Key Decision Point C", an essential landmark on the road to the launch pad.

"We are all excited about the decision that will make the Europa Clipper mission a decisive step towards uncovering the mysteries of this oceanic world," said Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of the director of the scientific mission of The NASA.

Europa Clipper will conduct a thorough investigation of the aquatic world to determine if it can support life in its underwater ocean.

The gravitational interactions with Jupiter generate tidal and heat forces, which maintain the oceanic liquid of Europa. The heating can even lead to volcanic vents on the seabed; on Earth, such ventilation systems support a wide range of life forms.

But it took decades to carry out a mission to this point, partly because of cost considerations and the challenges posed by the spatial environment around Jupiter.

Europa's orbital trajectory sinks deeply into the intense radiation zones that surround the giant planet. This radiation fuels the electronics of spacecraft, which limits the duration of future missions to months or even weeks.

Thus, rather than going around Europe, Clipper will fly close to the Moon to reduce its exposure to energy particles trapped by Jupiter's magnetic field.

Legend

Europa is home to a vast salty ocean under its fractured ice shell

Europa: Our best move to find an extraterrestrial life?

The spacecraft will carry nine scientific instruments, including cameras and spectrometers, producing high-resolution images of the moon's surface, a magnetometer to measure the strength and direction of its magnetic field (providing clues to depth and the salinity of the ocean) and an instrument penetrating the ice. radar to determine the thickness of the icy crust over the ocean.

The ice could be several tens of kilometers thick. Fortunately, scientists believe that seawater can reach the surface of Europe in many ways. In recent years, the Hubble Space Telescope has made tentative observations of water ice plumes emerging from Europe, such as Saturn's ice moon, Enceladus, which also has a sub-ocean. marine.

The first concepts for Europe's exploration missions were developed in the 1990s, around the time the Galileo spacecraft data made it possible to create proofs of interest. a submarine ocean. Since then, however, one proposal after the other has been thwarted, including an ambitious US-European mission inspired by the Cassini-Huygens mission.

But Clipper had a key champion at Capitol Hill, in the form of Republican lawmaker John Culberson who, as chairman of the House of Representatives credit committee that funds NASA, has earmarked money for the mission .

But last year, Culberson, who became known for his advocacy for the exploration of Europe, was overthrown by Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher in the 7th district of Texas . During the campaign, a pro-democracy political action committee issued an announcement saying, "For Houston, Lizzie Fletcher will invest in humans, not in aliens."

A follow-up mission to land on Europa was also proposed. But the last federal budget request provided no funding for the lander.

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