hollywoodtone.blogspot.com We may go to Jupiter by 2025 and find life there
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com We may go to Jupiter by 2025 and find life there
NASA hopes to launch a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, the solar system's most likely heavenly body to hold alien life, by 2025.
The White House's 2015 federal budget request includes a $15 million allocation to develop a mission to Europa, creating a time period of about a decade for NASA if the budget is passed. The moon sports an icy shell with a potentially life-supporting ocean of liquid water beneath. This ocean could be warmed by tidal reactions with Jupiter, which could produce a geologically active core and create hydro-thermal vents on the ocean floor. The heat produced from these vents could create the potential for life.
"Europa is a very challenging mission operating in a really high radiation environment, and there's lots to do to prepare for it," NASA chief financial officer Beth Robinson told reporters Tuesday. "We're looking for a launch some time in the mid-2020s."The mission would include a probe to orbit Jupiter, but make dozens of passes by Europa, possibly cruising through plumes of water vapor erupting from the moon's south pole. The potential $15 million to help fund this project is a small portion of the $17.5 billion allocated to the space agency in the 2015 request. The money would fund preliminary research for the experiment. A mission to Europa would cost about $2 billion to conceivably get off the ground.
"I know people have asked about the total size [of the possible mission], and we're frankly just not sure at this point," she said.This is the first time funding for an expedition to Europa has been formally requested, but Congress has previously allocated $155 million dedicated to the study of a possible mission in the past. The Europa mission concept will possibly be called the Europa Clipper.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com We may go to Jupiter by 2025 and find life there