How cool is this? For the first time scientists have mapped out a Europa lander mission

By eric.berger@chron.com (Eric Berger)

I’ve made no secret of my desire to explore Europa, a moon with an icy crust but large water oceans beneath the surface. With an internal heat source, many astronomers agree that Europa is the most likely place in our solar system beyond Earth where life might exist.

Although NASA’s administration is transfixed by Mars, there are people in Congress, including Texas Rep. John Culberson, who have argued for going to Europa. During last year’s budget cycle he levered $75 million into the budget, forcing NASA to continue developing mission concepts to visit Europa with robotic spacecraft.

Scientists desperately want to go there, ranking the exploration of Europa, along with returning a sample from Mars, as the highest priority missions in the scientific communities.

There’s more water on Europa than Earth. (NASA/Kevin Hand)

I’m pleased to report today that there has been some progress.

In addition to continuing work on development of the Europa Clipper, which I’ll discuss in a minute, for the first time scientists have done a complete study of a possible lander mission. The work will be reported in the journal Astrobiology . (abstract not yet available)
I had the opportunity to speak with Don Blankenship, a University of Texas geophysicist who is obsessed with Europa as much as I am, and perhaps more, about the clipper and lander proposals. He had a hand in authoring both of them.

The $2 billion Clipper mission, which scientists say could launch as soon as 2021, with appropriate funding, is rounding nicely into shape. After six years en route, the spacecraft would be inserted into an elliptical orbit around Europa, allowing it to make about three dozen fly-bys of Europa, some within less than 20 miles of the surface, Blankenship said.
The spacecraft, packed with instruments that would sniff Europa’s limited atmosphere for interesting molecules and penetrate its icy surface with radar, would spend its time near Europa taking pictures and collecting data, and then spend its time away from the moon processing and sending that wealth of data back to Earth.

Such a mission would provide a wealth of information about Europa, and would have the added benefit of identifying a potential landing site.

What the lander might look like. (Astrobiology)

Now here’s where the new work comes in: a team of scientists and engineers led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory performed a study of how that might be done, and what kind of scientific instrumentation such a mission should carry. Among the tasks the lander would accomplish:

• Measure the thickness of the ice
• Study the composition of the top few inches of ice
• Identify composition of “reddish” cracks that stain the surface of Europa
• Look for organic molecules, and other building blocks of life
• Study the geological activity due to gravitational squeezing of Europa by Jupiter

” It would tell us a lot about Europa that we really want to know,” Blankenship said.
Will any of this happen? NASA’s budget remains incredibly tight, and there’s no money in it for Flagship planetary science missions, let alone two or three that might include the Europa Clipper and a lander.

“For decades the United States has led the world — humanity has relied upon us to explore the outer planets,” Blankenship said. “But now it seems we’re checking out of the hotel.”

In other words, we’ll see.