Hydrothermalventscoulde
ontheseabedofEuropa,sim
towhatisseenonthefloorof
Earth’soceans– a region
whereextremophiles
thrive.The past and future of exploration
NASA’s
timeline
of Europa
visitors
Being part of the Jovian system has
its benefits in terms of exploration.
Although Europa hasn’t had the
same close inspection as Enceladus,
many spacecraft have made a
flying visit of the moon as they use
Jupiter’s enormous mass to provide
a ‘gravity assist’ – when a spacecraft
uses a planet’s mass to slingshot it
to a faster speed.
The first of these visits began with
NASA’s Pioneer 10 and 11 in 1973 and
1974 respectively. Afterwards came
the two Voyager spacecraft in 1979,
sending back pictures of Europa’s icy
surface in stunning resolution.
This began speculation that the
moon had a subsurface ocean,
gathering traction when NASA’s
Galileo spacecraft spent eight years
at the Jovian system, starting in- This long-duration study
revealed a host of exciting new
discoveries about Europa and its
fellow moons. The last spacecraft
to visit Europa was NASA’s New
Horizons in 2007 when it tested its
equipment at the Jovian system on
the way to Pluto.
The future is very exciting for
the Galilean moons. Two major
space exploration organisations,
the European Space Agency (ESA)
and NASA, are looking to visit. Due
to launch in June 2022 is the ESA’s
JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE),
which will head to the system in
order to study Ganymede, Callisto
and Europa. The following year –
assuming there are no delays from
the aforementioned investigation –NASA will launch its Europa Clipper,
solely focused on studying Europa.
After much discussion the Europa
Clipper team decided that, due to
Jupiter’s radiation, it would be best
to put the orbiter in an elliptical
orbit that makes 45 close flybys
over the course of roughly three
years. In a separate mission in
around 2025, there will be a Europa
Lander that will complement the
Europa Clipper mission.Europa facts
©
NASA;Europa is one of the most reflective objects in
the Solar System because of its icy surfaceEuropa orbits Jupiter at a
distance of 671,100 kilometres
(417,000 miles), almost
double that of the Earth-
Moon distance.671,100km
Europaisstuckinanorbital
resonancewithtwofellow
Galileanmoons;forevery
orbitGanymedecompletes,
EuropadoestwoandIo
completesfour.-160°
Europa’s surface temperature
at the equator never reaches
higher than -160 degrees Celsius
AllofJupiter’smoonsare (-260 degrees Fahrenheit).
namedafterthelovers
ofZeusfromGreek
mythology;Europa
wasthequeen
ofCrete.The cracks onthe
surface of the moon
are thought to be
from the constant
movement of the
subsurface sea when
it gets too close
to Jupiter.Europa is the smoothest object
in the Solar System, lacking
more craters and mountains
than any other object.ist
ar Date: 3 December 1973
Spacecraft: Pioneer 10 Date: 3 December 1974
Spacecraft: Pioneer 11 Date: 5 March 1979
Spacecraft: Voyager 1 Date: 9 July 1979
Spacecraft: Voyager 2 Date: 8 December 1995 to
21 September 2003
Spacecraft: Galileo Date: 28 February 2007
Spacecraft: New HorizonsEuropa