It’s Official. In 2025, NASA and the ESA Will Land on Europa to Look For Alien Life – Futurism

In BriefNASA and the ESA are planning to launch a joint mission toJupiter's moon Europa. This icy satellite hosts a subterraneanocean larger than those on Earth, and it could hostextraterrestrial life. Exploring Together

Recent discoveries in space have made the search for life beyond Earth easier and more difficult at the same time. As more exoplanets and moons with the potential to support extraterrestrial life turn up, the probability of finding one that actually does increases. However, sending missions to explore all these potentially inhabited worlds has also become more difficult.

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA)have come up with a rather practical solution: The two space agencies willpool their resources for one of these exploration missions. The target is Europa, one of Jupiters moons, and it is consideredone of the best candidates for alien life.

The proposal, dubbed the Joint Europa Mission (JEM), was unveiled Sunday in Vienna, Austria, at the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union. The whole idea is that if we think exploring Europa for life is important, it should be an international adventure, Michel Blanc from the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse, France, told New Scientist. The ultimate goal is to get to the surface and look for biosignatures of life.

The prospect of life on Europa increased when the moon was discovered to have a vast ocean hidden beneath its icy crust. This discovery wasreinforced by the observationof water plumes escaping to the surface. Researchers estimate thatEuropa boasts twice as much wateras our planet, so theres plenty to explore, and the ocean even seems to be more similar to Earths than previously thought.

The plan is for JEM to launch by the mid-2020s, and it would run for about six-and-a-half years. The first five of those would be used simply to reach Jupiter, then a few more days would be needed to reach Europa.

Upon reaching Europas orbit, a lander would be launched to explore the surface for 35 days, scanning material samples for traces of life. Meanwhile, the orbiter craft would spend three months taking various measurements to reveal Europas basic structure, focusing on the oceans composition. After that, the lander could crash into Europa while taking and transmitting data about the moons atmosphere.

While both NASA and the ESA have existing plans to explore Europa and the other icy-watery moons in the solar system, the planned combined effort would offer a unique advantage for both space agencies. Pooling their resources might make it easier to figure out solutions to key problems, such as Jupiters intense radiation and the need to make sure Europa wont be contaminated by organisms from Earth.

Theres great enthusiasm for this on both sides, Jakob van Zyl, director for solar system exploration at NASA JPL, told New Scientist. The budget request is now with the president.

Europa is just thefirst goal for collaborative space exploration. Potential missions to Jupiters other moons, as well as those of Saturn, could well be developed in the future. Perhaps alien life is justan Earth-formed partnership away.

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It's Official. In 2025, NASA and the ESA Will Land on Europa to Look For Alien Life - Futurism