Europa is the most likely place to find the life in Solar System. The surface of Europa is frozen and covered with a layer of ice. There is a liquid water ocean beneath its surface.
Now the NASA scientists have designed a spacecraft for Europa mission and set of instruments all the way from planet Earth to Jupiter. The purpose of this mission is to investigate the habitability of Jupiter's icy moon Europa, which has a formal name, Europa Clipper.
As per Space, several spacecraft have done flybys of Europa including pioneers 10 and 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2 in the 1970s. The Galileo spacecraft did a long-term mission to Jupiter and its moons between 1995 and 2003. Now NASA official announced their next mission is being planned for launch in between 2020 to 2024, arriving in the Jupiter system after a journey of several years.
The moniker harkens back to the clipper ships that sailed across the oceans of Earth in the 19th century. NASA officials said that Clipper ships were streamlined, three-masted sailing vessels renowned for their grace and swiftness. These ships rapidly shuttled tea and other goods back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean and around the globe.
According to a statement by NASA scientist, the prime mission plan to include 40 to 50 flybys. The spacecraft would take images of the moon's icy surface at high resolution. With help of this image, scientists investigate its composition and the structure of its interior and icy shell.
Europa is slightly smaller than the Earth's Moon at just over 3,100 kilometers (1,900 mi) in diameter. Researchers said both moons harbor oceans of liquid water beneath their icy shells. And these oceans are thought to be in contact with the rocky mantle below, making possible a lot of interesting chemical reactions.
In late 2015, Congress ordered NASA to develop a surface component of the Europa mission as well. The space agency is now studying the best ways to do that. Although the dates for the lander mission are far from being finalized, an optimistic estimate pegs the launch date at some time in 2024, followed by a landing on Europa in April 2031.
