Compiled from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft data, this
colorized surface image of Europa shows the blue-white terrains which indicate
relatively pure water ice. Scientists are very interested in these features
because they may offer a way to investigate the habitability of the moon’s
interior ocean.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
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NASA has issued an Announcement
of Opportunity (AO) for proposals about science instruments that could be
carried aboard a future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Selected instruments
could address fundamental questions about the icy moon and the search for life
beyond Earth.
“The possibility of life on Europa is a motivating force for scientists and
engineers around the world,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
“This solicitation will select instruments which may provide a big leap in our
search to answer the question: are we alone in the universe?”
NASA will first select approximately 20 proposals in April 2015.
Subsequently, the agency will provide approximately $25 million for selectees to
advance instrument formulation and development as part of a Phase A concept
study. After detailed review of selectees' reports, agency officials will select
approximately eight instruments to be built for flight and science
operations.
The AO calls for proposals compatible with a spacecraft that would either
orbit or perform multiple flybys of Europa. Spacecraft instruments will be used
to conduct high priority scientific investigations addressing the science goals
for the moon's exploration outlined in the National Resource Council’s (NRC)
Planetary Decadal Survey.
The Decadal Survey deemed a mission to Europa among the highest priority
scientific pursuits for NASA. It listed five key science objectives in priority
order that are necessary to improve our understanding of the potentially
habitable moon:
- Characterize the extent of the ocean and its relation to the deeper interior
- Characterize the ice shell and any subsurface water, including their heterogeneity, and the nature of surface-ice-ocean exchange
- Determine global surface, compositions and chemistry, especially as related to habitability
- Understand the formation of surface features, including sites of recent or current activity, identify and characterize candidate sites for future detailed exploration
- Understand Europa’s space environment and interaction with the magnetosphere.
While characterizing landing sites for future exploration is the fourth
scientific priority in the Planetary Decadal Survey, NASA places high priority
on this goal to enable a potential future lander mission to Europa. Current data
does not provide sufficient information to identify landing sites and design a
landing system capable of safely reaching the surface. In the AO, NASA included
a reconnaissance goal to characterize scientifically compelling sites, as well
as hazards, for a potential future landed mission to Europa.
“Proposals must be responsive to one or more of the six objectives," said
Curt Niebur, Outer Planets Program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“Plans could be adjusted to programmatic decisions made by NASA in the
future.”
Any mission to Europa must take into account the harsh radiation environment
that would require unique protection of the spacecraft and instruments. In
addition, spacecraft must meet planetary protection requirements intended to
protect Europa’s potentially habitable ocean. These requirements are very strict
and involve ensuring that a viable Earth organism is not introduced into the
Europa ocean.
Previous scientific findings point to the existence of a liquid water ocean
located under the moon’s icy crust. This ocean covers Europa entirely and
contains more liquid water than all of Earth's oceans combined.
Although Europa and Jupiter’s other moons have been visited by other
spacecraft, they were each limited to a single distant flyby. NASA’s Galileo
spacecraft, launched in 1989 , was the only mission to make repeated visits to
Europa, passing close by the moon less than a dozen times.
The NRC recommended NASA try to reduce the cost and scope of a mission to
Europa, and the agency still is working out its plans for such an undertaking.
In April, NASA released a request for information for concepts for a mission to
Europa that would cost less than $1 billion, excluding the launch vehicle, which
could still meet as many of the science priorities as possible. Recent NASA
studies have focused on an orbiter mission concept and a multiple flyby mission
concept as the most compelling and feasible.
Deadline for submitting proposals to the AO is October 17.
To view the AO in its entirety, visit:
For more information about Europa, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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