NASA wants to land on Jupiter's Europa satellite

Earlier this year, NASA said it was developing a solar spacecraft, scheduled to launch in 2020 to study the Jupiter system. Interestingly, the spacecraft not only flew by but also carried a ship landing on Jupiter's Europa satellite, taking samples from giant oceans beneath the layer on it and determining if there was a sign effect of life or not.

NASA wants to land the spacecraft on Jupiter's moon Europa

The source was revealed by John Culberson, director at House Appropriations Subcommittee, NASA's project budget management agency. Accordingly, apart from the main goal of developing the Clipper spacecraft to reach Jupiter, NASA also attached a self-propelled ship to land on the surface. Culberson said the principle here is quite simple, if you went there, why not just check if there's anything below the thick ice.

NASA wants to land on the moon of Jupiter.

According to research results from previous missions, Jupiter has Europa satellite with enough radiation to kill people after only a few days. But more importantly, Europa also has very few craters, based on its young and smooth surface, scientists believe that beneath the outermost layer is a layer of water and even an underground ocean that is possible the ability to hide life.

On the other hand due to the huge impact of Jupiter, this ice is pulled up and down tens of meters every day, forming cracks in the frozen surface. By self-propelled ships, NASA believes that it is possible to access immediately at active cracks, drop drills or cutters, proceed to take analytical specimens from beneath the mysterious ice.

Currently NASA is still looking for a rocket system to bring the Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter and one of the brightest candidates is SLS , the fastest-talking system today, bringing the ship to Jupiter. for about 4.6 years. SLS can take 70 tons out of Earth orbit and according to sources, engineers are trying to leave the Clipper ship with 510kg extra for landing gear, 230kg for landing gear and about 20-30kg for scientific equipment.

The goal of the ship is to land near active cracks and if the Hubble telescope's image and analysis results are correct, an ocean beneath the ice will be explored. At the same time, NASA is also considering installing a self-propelled, detached vessel after landing to explore further its properties.