Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Yes! Very pleased about visiting Europa (not just life, but the pure science)!! What about an "impactor" instead?

Don't know if this rule still applies, but...
Socrates II — (archived)

JPL's old plan of Sol system exploration is a flyby first, then an orbiter, then a lander,
then a rover, then a sample return mission, and finally a manned mission.

I too would like to see some kind of lander on Europa (the Russians had offered to
put one on what eventually became New Horizons to Pluto, but without any lander,
just a flyby). As I said previously in this thread, there could be life or its remains in
and on the surface ice of Europa (the dark material in the cracks) or even circling in
nearby space from previous meteorite impacts.

So one may not need to drill through miles of ice to get to them - but of course some
day we must get to that subsurface global ocean, but I know it is probably too soon
for that next mission.

Then again, perhaps by 2020 nanotechnology will have advanced enough that we
could pepper Europa with very small probes that could get all over and in the moon
without needing some big, cumbersome, and very expensive submarine robot. That
is the next paradigm, to stop thinking that a space probe mission has to be some big
and singular machine.

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