NASA is preparing for a mission to understand more about the famous Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter. The agency has already put a request for more funding in preparation for the mission. If all goes according to plan, the mission to Europa could launch in the middle of 2020 with a spacecraft set out to help with the exploration of the moon.
Assembling mission instruments
According to NASA’s Charles Bolden, an administrator, Europa is a fascinating moon, and they are planning a mission to find out if its conditions are appropriate to sustain life.
The main focus in the Europa Clipper mission is to investigate life in Europa, and the scientists hope for a viable mission. Already, NASA is assembling the instruments to carry out the mission.
They intend to send out a spacecraft equipped with radiation tolerance capabilities to orbit Jupiter and gather information about Europa. The unmanned spacecraft to Europe is expected to be about the size of a school bus, fitted with solar panels to help with the harnessing of energy from the sun.
Some of the instruments that NASA intends to fit into the spacecraft include a radar, especially for capturing beneath-the-surface images of the moon. An infrared spectrometer is also expected to be fitted into the spacecraft to capture details of the materials on the moon’s surface. The spacecraft is also expected to be bundled with a topography camera to record high-resolution images of Europa’s surface. Some other instruments to help with the analysis of Europa are also expected to be included in the mission.
Funding for the Europa mission
NASA has requested $30 million to fund preliminary studies of the mission starting later this year. The agency last year received $100 million from the Congress to fund the Europa mission.
Europa is said to be endowed with water bodies, including oceans that are believed to be about 62 miles deep. The moon has a lower gravity, but the conditions there are believed to be nearly the same as the earth. However, the planned mission should help NASA understand finer details about the icy moon.