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Collection:
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NASA Solarsystem Collection
Collection
NASA Solarsystem Collection
Collection
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title:
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Europa Exploration Concept
title
Europa Exploration Concept
title
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description:
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Almost 30 years ago, NASA's Voyagers 1 and 2 (lower left) made their historic rendezvous with the Jupiter system and first revealed Europa's icy-covered surface. In 1995, the Galileo spacecraft entered orbit about Jupiter, and for years studied the giant planet and its major moons. From this mission we learned that Europa is a world covered with a global ocean about 100 kilometers (60 miles) deep, and that this ocean was capped, liked Earth's Arctic Ocean, with a shell of solid ice. To learn more about the ocean and the ice shell above, and especially to investigate the ocean's suitability to sustain life, will require the next step, a future mission dedicated to exploring Europa from orbit about the moon itself (center). Both NASA and the European Space Agency are actively studying the possibility of launching such a mission in the next 10 years. If a mission is launched, depending on what is found, future missions to Europa might involve landers or even autonomous vehicles, called cryobots (upper right), that melt through the ice to explore the ocean below, perhaps sometime later in this century.
Credit: NASA/JPL
description
Almost 30 years ago, NASA's Voyagers 1 and 2 (lower left) made their historic rendezvous with the Jupiter system and first revealed Europa's icy-covered surface. In 1995, the Galileo spacecraft entered orbit about Jupiter, and for years studied the giant planet and its major moons. From this mission we learned that Europa is a world covered with a global ocean about 100 kilometers (60 miles) deep, and that this ocean was capped, liked Earth's Arctic Ocean, with a shell of solid ice. To learn more about the ocean and the ice shell above, and especially to investigate the ocean's suitability to sustain life, will require the next step, a future mission dedicated to exploring Europa from orbit about the moon itself (center). Both NASA and the European Space Agency are actively studying the possibility of launching such a mission in the next 10 years. If a mission is launched, depending on what is found, future missions to Europa might involve landers or even autonomous vehicles, called cryobots (upper right), that melt through the ice to explore the ocean below, perhaps sometime later in this century.
Credit: NASA/JPL
description
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keywords:
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Solar System Exploration
keywords
Solar System Exploration
keywords
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keywords:
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SSE
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keywords:
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Space
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keywords:
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NASA
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keywords:
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration
keywords
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
keywords
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keywords:
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JPL
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keywords:
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory
keywords
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
keywords
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keywords:
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Planets
keywords
Planets
keywords
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facet_what:
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Earth
facet_what
Earth
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Moon
facet_what
Moon
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Galileo
facet_what
Galileo
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Jupiter
facet_what
Jupiter
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Europa
facet_what
Europa
facet_what
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facet_where:
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory
facet_where
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Jupiter
facet_where
Jupiter
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Europa
facet_where
Europa
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Arctic Ocean
facet_where
Arctic Ocean
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where
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facet_when:
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1995
facet_when
1995
facet_when
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facet_when_year:
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1995
facet_when_year
1995
facet_when_year
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UID:
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SPD-SLRSY-5863
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original url:
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original_url
original url
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