NASA has been planning to send a life-detecting lander to Europa, Jupiter's fourth biggest moon. There were 21 scientists tasked to build a lander specifically headed to Europa.
Engadget has reported that 21 scientists from NASA have found it possible to send a lander to Jupiter's fourth moon, Europa. The thought started back in June 2016 and after eight months, they finally finished building a prototype of the lander. The lander will be finding life in the said moon. Its goal is to report a sign of life, in the present or past.
Fox stated that lander's second mission is to see if Europa can be habited by human beings. The team of 21 scientists in NASA has put in their report a list of instruments that the lander will be using to determine life in Europa; a microscope for searching microbial cells, vibrational spectrometer for analyzing molecular composition of samples and a mass spectrometer for filtering the particles from Europa's land.
According to New Scientist, Europa has been in the list for a possible extra-terrestrial life. When the Galileo orbiter has found out that there might be a huge saltwater ocean under its icy crust, scientists in NASA has been targeting to go and search for it.
Ever since NASA found an evidence of water vapour in Europa, they have considered it as an inhabitable place. It is the only place in the solar system, besides Saturn's moon Enceladus, to have an ocean. Its ocean is attached to a rocky seafloor that makes it possible to support life.
NASA will be using a sky-crane system to help the lander land on the surface of Europa. Since Europa has no atmosphere, parachutes won't work. They need to place it down it. Lander will work until its batteries ran out or approximately 20 days.
The possible date of lander's landing on Europa is in April 2031.
Watch and see how Europa looks like.
