I've been following the philosophy behind these Jovian Ice moon missions over on centauri-dreams.com, and it isn't quite that easy. We don't know how to design a mission to search directly for life because we're not quite sure what we'll find on the surface when we get there, or exactly what it is we're looking for. For example, packing a microscope we need to have some idea what kind of organism we expect, and its size and weight will rule out other, potentially more useful experiments. Do we gather a sample from the surface? Do we drill down through the ice? Do we fly through geyser plumes? Do we sample water flowing out through those cracks? No matter what we do, it will require big, heavy, delicate and highly specialized experimental payloads designed for a specific strategy. These preliminary missions will tell us HOW to design future missions, depending on what they find.

I often question NASA's overall exploration strategy, but I think the tactics of each individual missi9n is usually very well thought out.