14 DAY TRIAL // US space agency NASA has for some time now been considering the possibility of launching a mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa.
The mission, still in its early stages, would see a spacecraft sent to this orb and instructed to perform at least 45 flybys at altitudes from 1,700 miles to 16 miles (2,700 kilometers to 25 kilometers).
The goal of this ambitious project: trying to figure out whether or not seemingly desolate Europa might be a life-friendly world. The allotted time for the 45 flybys: 3 years.
True, we don't yet have a time frame for this space adventure. In fact, scientists at NASA still list the mission as merely “proposed” and say that a launch date is “to be determined.”
However, this doesn't mean the project risks being abandoned. Come May 26, NASA will hold a conference and announce the mission's science instruments.
“NASA will announce on Tuesday, May 26, the selection of science instruments for a mission to Europa,” the space agency writes in a statement announcing this May 26 conference.
Out of a total of 33 proposals for science instruments, the space agency will select just a few that will eventually be added to its concept Europa Clipper, should the spacecraft be actually built.
The list of proposed instruments includes a radar to see through Europa's frozen crust, an infrared spectrometer to study the chemical profile of its surface, and a camera for imaging local landscapes.
