Does an icy Jupiter moon harbor life? NASA seeking ideas for Europa mission.

The space agency is looking for proposals for instruments to be carried aboard a space probe to Europa, a Jovian moon thought to harbor a liquid ocean beneath its ice.

|
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
This image, created with data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, covers a section of Europa 101 miles by 103 miles (163 km by 167 km), with the blue-white areas representing pure water ice, while the reddish areas showing where water ice is mixed with hydrated salts, potentially magnesium sulfate or sulfuric acid.

Under its icy crust, Jupiter's moon Europa could harbor a vast ocean of potentially life-supporting liquid water, and NASA has issued a call for proposals for science instruments for mission that aims to study the mysterious moon like never before.

Scientists have found evidence of giant waterspouts taller than Mount Everest on Europa and think the moon could hold a potentially habitable ocean with more water than all of Earth's oceans. NASA is asking for designs of scientific instruments that will help in the search for life on Europa. The winning instrument designs will be chosen next year and will be built for a future mission to explore Europa. The deadline for submitting proposals is Oct. 17.

"The possibility of life on Europa is a motivating force for scientists and engineers around the world," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,said in a statement. "This solicitation will select instruments which may provide a big leap in our search to answer the question: Are we alone in the universe?" [Photos: Europa, Mysterious Icy Moon of Jupiter]

Every 10 years, the U.S. National Research Council, a nonprofit organization that advises the government, issues a report that recommends a planetary exploration strategy for NASA and the National Science Foundation. The current report (which covers 2013 to 2022) ranks an exploration of Europa among the highest priority missions.

According to the report, the future mission should focus on taking a closer look at the ocean that scientists suspect lies below the surface; characterizing its icy crust and looking for any subsurface liquid water; determining the surface composition and chemistry; examining surface features and identifying landing areas for future missions; and understanding the purpose of its magnetosphere — the magnetic field surrounding the celestial body.

NASA officials said the instrument proposals should focus on at least one of these exploration goals. The announcement calls for instruments designed for a spacecraft that will orbit Europa or complete several flybys, since astronomers do not yet have enough data to pinpoint safe landing sites on the icy moon.

One challenge with a mission to Europa is the massive amount of radiation surrounding Jupiter. Any spacecraft and instruments will need to be designed to handle the radiation. Further, a future mission will require extra caution so that anything living on Earth is not introduced into the potentially habitable Europa ocean.

NASA will select about 20 proposals in April 2015. The agency will award $25 million for those selected to further advance the designs of their instruments. The 20 reports will be reviewed, and then NASA officials will select eight winners. NASA will build the winning instruments for flight and send them to Europa.

NASA is in the process of designing a mission that will cost less than $1 billion and will still meet as many of the exploration goals as possible. 

For NASA's full guidelines for Europa mission science instrument ideas, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/1p1QU0b.

Follow Kelly Dickerson on TwitterFollow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Copyright 2014 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Does an icy Jupiter moon harbor life? NASA seeking ideas for Europa mission.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0718/Does-an-icy-Jupiter-moon-harbor-life-NASA-seeking-ideas-for-Europa-mission
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe