In the past decade, NASA has developed the habit of scouting for newer habitations beyond Earth. And in the past year, the space agency has quickly found a new target. This newfound priority is not so distant and is, in fact, within the fabric of our solar system. Read through this article as we introduce a potential home.
NASA decides to explore a planet-sized moon
For many years, Mars has remained invincible as NASA’s major leap towards interplanetary civilization. From the perspective of the general public, the planet is the next best thing. Many have seen Mars as humanity’s biggest chance to explore realms outside our atmosphere.
However, in what could be the biggest ever plot twist, NASA has announced plans to visit somewhere much different. This new location is a dark and frozen habitat somewhere within our Solar system. And for years, this region has remained mysterious until NASA decided on its ambitious mission.
This is Europa, one of the four giant moons of Jupiter. It is known to be icy and completely uninhabited, but the recent announcement has labeled it as NASA’s latest promise. However, this is not a lonely exploration; it is a collaboration between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL).
Brief overview of NASA’s collaborative mission
Europa was first discovered in 1973 via the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. At the time, the planet appeared dark and frozen. It was not until the 2010s that NASA discovered the Moon to have a plume of ocean underneath its crust via the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA then spent the next decade collecting data to observe the giant moon.
NASA found this body of water to be rich in life-supporting chemistry. This then led to a partnership between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL). Now, with a spacecraft called the Europa Clipper, they have decided to arrive at the giant moon by 2030, just like the mysterious Earth’s second moon.
Europa Clipper has been designed as an orbiter that would perform flybys through Jupiter. The orbiter would measure Europa and its underground waterbed, study its composition, and search for thermal hotspots that expose ocean material. The clipper would have an in-built ice radar, spectrometers, magnetometers, and high-resolution cameras.
A broader mission with Europa Clipper
When scientists have gathered detailed data about the giant moon by 2030, there will be more. The agency plans to use a spacecraft to help navigate Europa for habitability. But more specifically, they plan to identify sites safe for landing during future Europa missions. The data gathered from this mission would guide NASA through its next steps afterward.
The importance of this mission for future Solar exploration
For over 300,000 years, Earth has been our only single habitation throughout the solar system. And that is without considering the vastness of our Milky Way Galaxy or the entirety of the cosmos. When are we going to explore the innumerable expanse of the universe? This is the question NASA has asked itself in the past decade.
Although they had had their eye on Mars for many decades, it is exciting to know we have options now. According to experts, the discovery of this undercrust ocean body has made a strong case for Europa. Scientists believe this mimics Earth’s earliest stages. Hence, Europa may in fact be the strongest candidate for life within our solar system.
Come 2030, the mission would have been successful, and NASA would begin plans to make Europa more habitable, like this ancient mysterious occurrence on Mars, signaling activity. However, going forward, the agency also plans to explore other icy moons on planets such as Saturn, Uranus, and even exoplanets.