Be careful if you are suggesting a submarine to explore the ocean under the ice...LOL
Posted on 07/27/2015 11:59:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Jupiter’s moon Europa has the most water in the entire Solar System. If you took all the water on Earth, collected it into a big sphere, it would measure almost 1,400 kilometers across.
Europa’s water would measure nearly 1,800 kilometers.All that water exists in a layer around Europa, encased in a layer of ice.
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According to the plan, a spacecraft will launch in the 2020s, carrying 9 instruments to Europa. Most will be familiar cameras, mass spectrometers, and the like, to study the surface of Europa to a high level of resolution. Over the course of 45 flybys, the spacecraft will get down as close as 25 kilometers and capture it with incredible resolution.
Perhaps the most exciting, and controversial instrument on board the new Europa Orbiter mission will be its ice-penetrating radar. Mission planners battled over installing a radar this sophisticated, as it will be an enormous drain on the orbiter’s power.
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The worst case scenario is that the shell goes thicker than the radar can reach, and we won’t even know how far it goes.
Whatever happens, the Europa orbiter will be a boon to science, answer outstanding questions about the moon and the chances of finding life there.
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A future Europa lander might be equipped with a heated drill attached to a tether. The lander would be have with a heat-generated radioisotope thermoelectric generator...
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Drilling more than a few meters is probably the stuff of science fiction. Russian scientists in Antarctica drilled for almost two decades to get through 4,000 meters of ice above Lake Vostok. Imagine trying to get through 100 kilometers of the stuff, on a distant world, with a robot.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing...
What about just getting our guys back up and down from the space station all by ourselves?
Geeezum, jumping ahead quite a bit.
Beat me to it ;)
You know that’s the first thing anyone over the age of 40 is thinking
I thought I was the only Dolby fan here ;)
Golden Age of Wireless is a desert island disc.
New tshirt:
End NASA Muslim Outreach
Just Launch and Return a Damn Astronaut Ourselves
First thing that popped into my head.
Ive got it, I wish he did more stuff. Lots’of’good stuff on that album.
A way underrated album. And a way underrated talent.
It’s a shame that “Blinded Me with Science” got all the attention, not even nearly the best song: Airwaves, One of our Submarines, Radio Silence were just great tunes.
Thanks BenLurkin.
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The Dolby trinity. Airwaves is just awesome start to finish. I like the alternate version of Radio silence more than the regular but the regular is still great.
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