Jupiter's mysterious moon Europa, famed for its role in 2001: A Space Odyssey, may soon host an intense search for life.

The White House this week presented a 2016 U.S. budget that includes $30 million in funding for the development of an ambitious mission to explore Europa. The ice-covered moon has long been suspected of harboring a hidden, saltwater ocean that could be habitable.

Alongside the tantalizing possibility of life under Europa's ice, the fact that the second of Jupiter's satellites is similar in size to Earth's moon, has more water than our own planet, and shows signs of organic chemistry makes it one of the most exciting destinations in the entire solar system. (See "The Hunt for Life Beyond Earth," in National Geographic magazine.)

An illustration of the surface of Europa shows compounds from its hidden ocean bubbling up to the surface and spewing into space.

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ice Moon Ahoy

For the past 15 years NASA has been working on a design for a mission called the Europa Clipper. Launched sometime in the mid-2020s, it would travel in long, looping orbits around Jupiter and make at least 45 close flybys of Europa on a two-year mission.

Mission planners are considering including ground-penetrating radar that can look through the icy crust, high-resolution cameras that can map its craggy surface, and spectrometers that can sniff out Europa's trace atmosphere.

One fascinating surface feature NASA's mission will most likely target will be the bizarre reddish vein-like cracks that blanket the moon. The Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered geysers of water vapor erupting around Europa's south pole near these cracks. Speculation abounds that the vents may bring organic compounds up to the surface from the hidden ocean below. So NASA may fly the spacecraft straight through the suspected plumes, which may spout more than a hundred miles (161 kilometers) into space. That would allow NASA's instruments to taste and smell the blasts.

But the Clipper mission won't be alone, since the European Space Agency is also planning a run at Europa with its own mission, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), scheduled for launch in 2022. The goal will be to investigate not only Europa but also its neighboring ice-covered moons, Callisto and Ganymede.

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NASA Eyes Mission to Jupiter's Ice Ocean Moon