NASA Plans to Land on Europa

NASA now knows that Jupiters moon Europa has oceans on it. Under its thick icy surface is a large ocean, larger than ones on Earth. The moon seems to be a livable place for oraganisms.Now they are trying to launch a mission to land there in 2020.Imagine the life forms that may be there?! This article discusses NASAs plans and how they will go upon completing this mission. Read and comment i would love to discuss with you!

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reply to post by zazenlife


"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE."

yep... probe being tested now in Antarctica



Underwater Robot Helps NASA Explore Europa
by Bill Christensen
Date: 25 February 2008

The Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer (ENDURANCE) robot probe is scheduled for some tough tests in the next few weeks. The goal is to help NASA eventually explore the underwater environment of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.

www.space.com...

ENDURANCE Project Taking Icy Test Dive

February 8, 2008 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal A robotic probe developed for NASA’s Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) Program is scheduled to perform a series of test dives in an ice-covered lake in Wisconsin during the week of February 11, 2008. These tests are intended to demonstrate the probe’s ability to function in a cold-water environment before its builders take it to Antarctica for a full-blown demonstration. This autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), called ENDURANCE – the Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctic Explorer – is a $2.3 million project intended to demonstrate concepts for exploring the ice-covered ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa. While underwater exploration on Europa is far in the future, it is not too soon to start developing the technology that will be needed for such a mission. The ENDURANCE project is expected to contribute to defining mission concepts for exploring Europa. ENDURANCE is designed to swim untethered under ice, creating three-dimensional maps of the underwater environments it explores. It will collect data on conditions in those environments and take samples of microbial life. It is a follow-on to the Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX), a successful ASTEP project that completed a series of underwater field tests in Mexico in 2007.

astrobiology.nasa.gov...





Europa Submarine Prototype Gets Another Test
by Nancy Atkinson on November 12, 2008
www.universetoday.com...

Originally posted by Gastrok
"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE."

Yeah funny that

WHAT A COINCIDENCE

I think we need to concentrate on our own planet and take some time to look at ourselves before we go contaminating the heavens with our ways.
We wage wars, destroy our planet and have basically ruined what we have, yet they think its a good idea to venture else where?

No reason at all to not expect the water beneath the ice on Europa to be teeming with life just like the deepest trenches in our oceans.

The water temperature on Europa would be the same as our deep oceans... and just as dark, yet we have all kinds of weird life down there. Some look downright alien and provide their own light


© 2002 MBARI Smithsonian
The small Benthocodon jelly has been found near sea mountains, some of which dwarf the Himalayas.


Benthocodon Hyalinus


Latrunculia Apicalis


Chondrocladia


Unknown Species

Lets just hope the first pictures we get back are not of some huge sea monster going for the lights on the probe and eating it Last picture we get is giant teeth

reply to post by Lee78


"The earth is a cradle of the mind, but one cannot live in a cradle forever."

Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky
Father of Russian Astronautics, 1896

Originally posted by Gastrok
reply to post by zazenlife

 

"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE."

And TITAN, too...

Originally posted by Arken

Originally posted by Gastrok
reply to post by zazenlife

 

"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE."

And TITAN, too...

Titan looks like Earth I think.

We wont find any life on that planet, even if it is there. The methods they are using to get through the ice are seriously flawed. We will land there, be able to play around on the surface, but I don't think the way they are going about it right now will achieve the lofty goals they are setting.

I think we should use a kinetic projectile to create an event that would send liquid water into space (which wouldn't be liquid for more than a second) then fly a craft through it to take the samples and return it to Earth.

Nasa has a bad habit of "looking" for life but for some reason sends the wrong equipment to do so on every mission. I mean, look at the Mars science packages, they couldn't find life if it crawled up and waved hello for crying out loud.

It's about time! We KNOW that life depends on water (that is, as far as we know), and Europa is teeming with it.
I just hope it has a working core of some sort, a core that generates heat. A core hot enough to actually provide liquid water under the ice that covers it.

About damned time... now they can finally bring forth proof that aliens exist!!!

And fish / underwater species are intelligent so there is a big in your face moment coming up for the world

Lets just hope the first pictures we get back are not of some huge sea monster going for the lights on the probe and eating it Last picture we get is giant teeth

I know how horrible would that be? *CHOMP CHOMP*

Europa is going to be an interesting observation. Its said to have the liquid like ocean inside, I can imagine there being pockets that face inward towards the ocean like area that may be dry even tho still inside. The potential animal life there should be amazing if not large type sea creatures then large microb groups that may behave as if intelligently working together like a blob. The size of the moon gives space for all types of potential life it will be interesting. I wish there was a way to do internal survey of the moon so if there are inward facing pockets they will know their locations and drill around them to get to the liquid interior and not encounter rock like drill materials. So they would need a type of scanning orbiter that would check the entire moon for dense areas and I hope they put some great camera techs in the probes so ALL can enjoy the sites.. They may have to do good sterilization method on the probe so it wont infect the moon.

Stunning pictures Zorgon.
Looks like DNA has very few limits as to what it can come up with.
In fact, to quote an often used phrase,
"This is the elephant in the room" of mysteries,
a naturally occurring self replicating adaptive bio-engineering factory,
that everyone seems to accept as "normal".

Ceres also has frozen water and even fresh water has been speculated in some of the articles I've read. Always been drawn to it.



But I don't think anything is just wide open to us.

Originally posted by MainLineThis
We wont find any life on that planet, even if it is there. The methods they are using to get through the ice are seriously flawed. We will land there, be able to play around on the surface, but I don't think the way they are going about it right now will achieve the lofty goals they are setting.

I hope your wrong that they are using the wrong equipment but it would be par for the course.

I haven't looked into it but know that it isn't easy to burrow through that amount of ice. Do you have any more info on how they propose to get beneath the ice?

Originally posted by Gastrok
reply to post by zazenlife

 

"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE."

Where is this from?

Originally posted by Pimander

Originally posted by MainLineThis
We wont find any life on that planet, even if it is there. The methods they are using to get through the ice are seriously flawed. We will land there, be able to play around on the surface, but I don't think the way they are going about it right now will achieve the lofty goals they are setting.

I hope your wrong that they are using the wrong equipment but it would be par for the course.

I haven't looked into it but know that it isn't easy to burrow through that amount of ice. Do you have any more info on how they propose to get beneath the ice?

Isn't the ice miles thick? They would need some kind of super heated rod to punch a hole through it and then drop the underwater probe. I would think pushing through that much ice would take a very long time...

-SAP-

reply to post by SloAnPainful


Maybe a laser can cut into it like on the movie Aliens vs Predators and then drop it in. I hope no mechanical drill is used that could contaminate the sphere..