The Clipper mission to explore the icy ocean world of Europa has been cleared to proceed to the final design and construction.
NASA has given the mission the go-ahead, which will mean a final design phase, followed by the construction and testing of the ship and its scientific payloads.
"We are all excited about the decision that moves the Europa Clipper mission one key step closer to unlocking the mysteries of this ocean world," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a statement.
This artist's rendering shows NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, which is being developed for a launch sometime in the 2020s. This view shows the spacecraft configuration, which could change before launch, as of early 2016. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA/JPL-Caltech
"We are building upon the scientific insights received from the flagship Galileo and Cassini spacecraft and working to advance our understanding of our cosmic origin, and even life elsewhere."
Jupiter’s moon is a cold place, but the jury is out on whether it is inhospitable or not. The icy conditions may in fact provide an environment that’s conducive to life, as it’s believed to cover a body of water that could be up to 170km deep.
Any liquid water has the potential to harbour alien life, even if it’s just a few microbes for now. Europa’s subsurface ocean is in liquid form because of the way the moon interacts with its planet, Jupiter. The gravitational forces generate the heat that keeps the water from freezing and may even drive volcanic vents on the seafloor. On Earth, life flourishes in the warm water around undersea vents.
The Clipper aims to find out if Europa’s ocean has the same potential, by investigating the moon and its waters. But it will be no easy task.
The spacecraft will have to orbit Jupiter to perform a detailed study in a series of flybys, because the radiation around Europa itself is too fierce for any craft to withstand. Even the periodic exposure of close swoops to the moon will require a highly radiation-resistant design and a sprightly spacecraft.
During the mission, the spacecraft will perform 45 flybys of Europa at closest-approach altitudes varying from 1700 miles to 16 miles above the surface. It will spend that time looking for warm water at or near the moon’s surface and evidence of water and tiny particles in Europa’s thin atmosphere.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed water vapor above the south polar region of Europa in 2012, providing potential evidence of water plumes. If Clipper can confirm that these plumes exist and link them to a subsurface ocean, then they can be studied as evidence of the potential for habitation – without having to land and drill through the ice.
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