NASA Mission Will See If Life Can Exist on Icy Moon of Jupiter

NASA is about to launch a $5.2 billion mission to Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa, a major step to determine if the distant world has the conditions to host life.

(Bloomberg) — NASA is about to launch a $5.2 billion mission to Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa, a major step to determine if the distant world has the conditions to host life.

In a voyage more than a decade in the making, the Europa Clipper spacecraft is set to take off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida at 12:06 p.m. New York time on Monday.

The launch will put the deep-space probe en route to reach Europa by 2030. During the course of the mission, the probe will come as close as 16 miles (25.7 kilometers) to the surface.

The spacecraft won’t be landing, but will perform roughly 50 flybys over four years.

The goal is to see whether Jupiter’s moon has the potential for life to thrive. While scientists have long focused such efforts on Mars, which is more similar to Earth, NASA is aiming for Europa because of a massive ocean believed to be underneath its icy crust.

If any life is present, it would be there, which is why NASA wants a closer look.

“It has more water than Earth does,” said Amanda Nahm, deputy program scientist at NASA for the Europa Clipper mission. Most life requires water, Nahm added.

Over the last half century, scientists have pieced together the existence of this ocean thanks to measurements from ground-based telescopes and deep-space probes like the two Voyager spacecraft, which flew by in 1979. 

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, launched in 1989, flew by Europa nearly a dozen times and took measurements of its magnetic field that indicated a body of water beneath a layer of ice thought to be 10 to 15 miles thick.

It’s not just the saltwater ocean itself that has scientists intrigued. Other measurements indicate that it may be interacting with Europa’s warm rocky core, providing heat and energy needed to fuel life.

Moreover, scientists are hopeful that many molecules that serve as the building blocks for life – including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen – are present within the moon, as they are found throughout the Solar System.

“Being there makes it easier for us to actually ‘see’ the interior,” Nahm said.

While Europa Clipper won’t determine if life is present, the spacecraft is equipped with nine instruments to study the moon in detail, giving scientists a better understanding of what might be lurking below. The spacecraft won’t be landing but will perform roughly 50 flybys over four years.

One intriguing possibility is that plumes of saltwater actually erupt from underneath the surface of Europa, something the Hubble space telescope helped to discover. If that is the case, it’s possible that Europa Clipper may pass through an erupting plume at some point, giving the spacecraft an opportunity to directly sample parts of the unseen ocean.

The spacecraft has a long route to get to Jupiter – a path that entails slingshotting around both Earth and Mars, using the planets’ gravity to pick up speed. 

Once it’s there, Europa Clipper will have to survive a constant bombardment of irradiated particles, as Jupiter has one of the harshest radiation environments in the Solar System.

NASA scientists grew concerned that the spacecraft’s electronics weren’t hardy enough to withstand the radiation. Extra testing conducted last month determined that the vehicle is capable of handling what’s in store.

If Europa Clipper can survive and pull off its monumental mission, NASA – and the world – could finally be one step closer to answering the question of whether there’s life beyond Earth, said Nahm.

“If we were to find that Europa is currently habitable, I think that’s paradigm changing,” she said.

Subscribe Now: Business of Space newsletter, a weekly look at the inside stories of investments beyond Earth.