NASA has finally locked down its plans to explore Jupiter's Moon Europa and moving it to the final stage of development.
The space agency plans to send a probe to the gargantuan planet's one of 79 moons as early as 2023, however they're ready to wait till 2025.
Reuters
Europa is slightly smaller than our Moon. It is covered in a thick icy crust. Researchers believe that there's an ocean kilometres below this icy outer layer.?
Researchers also believe that this ocean could contain the necessary combination for life to thrive-- water being one of them, along with energy in the form of tidal heat. Moreover, they also feel that the moon could be home to some kind of living organisms, due to the aforementioned conditions.
Researchers in the past were also able to find spectral signature of irradiated sodium chloride (aka salt) by using the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) instrument to scan Europa in infrared light.?
According to the mission, the probe would flyby the moon, while collecting all the necessary data and samples. It is expected to be equipped with an array of instruments, including cameras, radar units, a magnetic field-sensing instrument, a heat sensing device, and a mass spectrometer to see what kinds of matter the moon throws out into space. It cannot orbit the moon as a conventional satellite as Jupiter's radiation belt would fry the electronics.
Reuters
The locking-down of the plan means the project will proceed from its preliminary design phase to its final design and construction phase. Post which, another review would proceed the project to system assembly, test, and then the final launch phase.
NASA is also gearing up for its next big Mars mission in 2020, and it has begun its training at the lava fields in Iceland to train its new robotic rover. The rover will be able to collect samples and store them in tubes, which later will be brought back to Earth through future missions.