NASA picks tools for voyage to possibly LIFE-SUPPORTING moon Europa NASA has today announced the nine scientific instruments which will ride on a Europa-bound probe to examine the icy moon for signs of life. NASA's Galileo mission provided strong evidence that Europa – which is about the size of Earth's moon – contains a liquid ocean beneath its frozen crust. If proven to exist, this global …
You should imagine Viv Stanshall when reading any list.
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Just do some TNT fishing, lob a couple of sticks down to the surface, blast through the ice and wait for the stunned fish to float up to the surface.
On a serious note though, I always wondered what would happen if/when they drill through the surface, would the lower gravity and negligible atmosphere cause the water underneath to sublime and blast the drilling probe into space? similarly wonder what would happen if it was struck by a large asteroid and the ice shell melted/was destroyed over a large area, would you end up with a floating ball of water (like the earth)? would it just freeze again immediately? would it go shooting off into space like a deflating balloon resulting in an ice shell with a bit of rock rattling around inside?
Icon because it has been a long day and I'm waiting for beer o'clock.
"would the lower gravity and negligible atmosphere cause the water underneath to sublime and blast the drilling probe into space?"
Probably not. The hole would have to be several km deep, and there would be an unfeasibly long piece of drilling equipment in the way.
Don't drill the ice, melt it. Google "melt probe".
"what would happen if it was struck by a large asteroid and the ice shell melted/was destroyed over a large area"
"would you end up with a floating ball of water (like the earth)?"
Yes, if the impact was severe enough.
"would it just freeze again immediately?"
No.
"would it go shooting off into space like a deflating balloon resulting in an ice shell with a bit of rock rattling around inside?"
No.
I think you missed the part that it was (apparently) an ocean of liquid H2O, meaning that it will be at or above 270K (give or take, dependant on salt content and pressure, unless I'm missing something fundamental about the temperatures required for phase change in water). Not really any colder than our oceans here.
If life independently formed here, there may or may not be anything on Europa. If the chemical basics were seeded in this region of the galaxy, via any potential natural or artificial method (like heavy elements get seeded by novae), it is highly likely that there is similar life on Europa, since the whole system congealed out of the same cloud of gunk.
I'm actually quite excited to find out, either way :)
The mission would send a solar-powered spacecraft into a long, looping orbit around the gas giant Jupiter...
At that distance the solar panels are going to have to be truly gargantuan to provide a decent amount of power to keep everything from freezing and run all the sciencey stuff.
Since we aren't assembling stuff in orbit yet, that means making them foldable to fit in the launcher fairing, and adds to the complexity, weight etc. Sure we've done it before but each moving part is added risk of mission failure. Not like we can just pop up there with a space helmet and a rocket pack and fix it.
Nuke power is always the better option. We use if for the deeper-space probes. More warmth, greater energy budget for the size of the probe. I know there's a need to radiate waste heat which requires radiators, but I can't imagine they'd have to be as big as the area of solar panels needed to generate the same power.
No more concerns about freezing every time the probe goes being Jupiter and can't see the sun.
But no, whopping great solar panels or a tiny power budget always seems to win.
Solar power is far from ideal, it means a tight power budget and not all the instruments will be usable at the same time. A nuclear RTG would be much better, but I'm afraid we are all out of Plutonium 238. And it's likely to stay that way unless Putin gets so belligerent the US starts making new nukes again.
You KNOW the REAL reason why they will not use an RTG, don't you????
(Hint Nuclear power is not politically correct, and this stinks of a politically correct decision making process.)
I still remember all of the noise and the big fucking waste of time the enviro-wankers put up over the launch of previous RTG powered probes.
... but not as we know it!
It would throw a massive spanner in the works of modern day understanding of religion for the masses, and hopefully make everyone play nice.
From an academic perspective, the idea of life existing today on another world within our solar system is fascinating. I've been following the Europa story since the water plumes were initially detected, and the theories put forward are encouraging.
As a planet, we need something like this to get us all working together on something :)
It would throw a massive spanner in the works of modern day understanding of religion for the masses, and hopefully make everyone play nice.
You're being too logical and humans, for the most part, don't seem to work that way. Given the nature of the "religious", there will probably be a series of holy wars of them vs. the scientists. Sort of like when anyone brings science to the table.. be it global warming, the age of the earth, gay marriage, etc., etc. And there's the fundies in the middle east who will take an even harsher stand.
Not sure if you're aware or not, but there are already religious wars going on in the Middle East. This really wouldn't change anything in that regard. Just another reason to add to their list of justifications for violence.
Also, the last couple of Popes have already laid the ground work for changing a few things if life outside of the Earth is actually found. So, I wouldn't expect a big hoopla to come from Catholics, or really most of the Christian sects.
Really the only big upset might be if we find intelligent life that we can communicate with AND they insist on worshipping the Crawling Lasagna Monster instead of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I mean, seriously, Lasagna? That's just insane.
I'm well aware of what's happening in the Middle East and to France and other places. I'm also well aware of what's happening here in the States. I'm going to wait and see if Congress doesn't pull the funding on this launch since searching for life or life-supporting moons, planets, etc. goes against a bunch of the idiots beliefs. Politics and religion... strange bedfellows to say the least.
And when we finally encounter a superior species, they say to us:
"You dumb fuckers, you can't even live in harmony amongst your own kind, and NOW you want to play in OUR BACK YARD??? Get back on your own rock, and stay there until you learn to play nice with one another. Maybe then you can play in OUR BACK YARD once you have grown up!!!!!"
Anyone care to characterize the politician's reactions?
and others forget the long-known basic, life on earth started when it was not a watery world, but a hydrocarbon soup. Sure, we cannot be certain, but no free oxygen, for sure, that old idea is definite.
Who knows what old forms it poisoned? How far they had evolved?
The only way there would be life recognisable to Earthlings on Enceladus or Europa is if it had been carried from elsewhere.
Neither satisfies the conditions under which life is thought to have begun here.
Not that I oppose beautiful Europa being a particular target for exploration. It seems a place where humans might live. If there is anything alive and edible in its deep ocean, a cannery will soon follow.
Canquistadore!
I acknowledge my debt to the great Brian Aldiss for my words following 'edible' above.
Stuff before that is my own.
The long-awaited Europa probe, yay!
The probe is currently budgeted at around 2 billion dollars. That's expensive but doable for NASA. It needs a launcher, a big one too, to get it there - long way, needs a lot of 'oomph' to send it on its way.
Hmm, NASA probe... which probably means a NASA rocket to launch it, which means... SLS.
That's at least another 1.6 billion dollars added to the budget, NASA's budget is kind of tight for nearly 4 billion dollars...
Holmes! I think I've cracked it! NASA can never use a Falcon Heavy because that's admitting that SLS is a too-expensive boondoggle, but neither can they realistically stretch their budget to 4 billion dollars!
Which means... this program is probably not going to fly, not until SLS is dead.
I made myself sad... I was looking forward to the Europa survey...
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