Seven SMD-Supported Instruments to Search for Evidence of Life on Europa
Technologies Infused: When NASA launches its mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa in the 2020s, seven instruments enabled by SMD technology investments or flight development efforts will be onboard to help achieve mission science goals. Artist’s concept of NASA’s Europa mission spacecraft approaching its target for one of many flybys. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) The Europa mission will gather high-resolution images of the moon’s surface, and investigate the composition and structure of its interior and icy shell to determine if the moon might be habitable for primitive forms of life. Evidence from NASA’s Galileo mission in the 1990s strongly suggested that Europa may contain a vast ocean underneath its icy crust. Europa also experiences great tidal forces as it orbits Jupiter, and these forces cause the moon to flex, which produces heat in the moon’s interior. Scientists also believe that Europa’s ocean is in direct contact with its rocky interior, creating conditions that...