A congressman’s loss clouds the future of two demanding missions to EuropaDuring a recent update, Clipper planners revealed they are looking at Falcon Heavy.by Eric Berger - Dec 3, 2018 1:00pm GMT
Eric Berger’s take on impact of mid-terms on Europa missions:QuoteA congressman’s loss clouds the future of two demanding missions to EuropaDuring a recent update, Clipper planners revealed they are looking at Falcon Heavy.by Eric Berger - Dec 3, 2018 1:00pm GMThttps://arstechnica.com/science/2018/12/will-the-europa-missions-be-iced-after-congressmans-defeat-not-right-now/
The breakthrough referenced by Goldstein involved the addition of a Star 48 "kick stage" to the Falcon Heavy rocket, which would provide an extra boost of energy after the rocket's upper stage had fired. With this solid rocket motor kick stage, Goldstein said Clipper would need just a single Earth gravity assist and would not have to go into the inner Solar System for a Venus flyby."Nobody is saying we're not going on the SLS," Goldstein said. "But if by chance we don't, we don't have the challenge of the inner Solar System. This was a major development. This was a big deal for us."
1) One could argue that JIMO actually got in the way of NASA developing a realistic Europa mission for many years.2) and it is not really a case of dueling landers, it's more a case of the Europa lander vs. the rest of the scientific community, which would rather see that money spent on a bunch of other priorities.
This was really a no-brainer: the cost estimates on that mission were over $20 billion (yes, you read that right), and nobody expected it to ever progress very far in development. He did everybody a favor before even more money was thrown down that bottomless pit.
Quote from: Blackstar on 12/03/2018 05:38 pm1) One could argue that JIMO actually got in the way of NASA developing a realistic Europa mission for many years.2) and it is not really a case of dueling landers, it's more a case of the Europa lander vs. the rest of the scientific community, which would rather see that money spent on a bunch of other priorities. 1) I would argue that the real purpose of JIMO was to delay or cancel any consideration of a real mission. It was a complete fantasy from the start.
Quote from: Blackstar on 12/03/2018 05:38 pmThis was really a no-brainer: the cost estimates on that mission were over $20 billion (yes, you read that right), and nobody expected it to ever progress very far in development. He did everybody a favor before even more money was thrown down that bottomless pit.I always suspected that you were a traitor to the Galactic Empire, Blackstar.
2) In addition to the question of scientific balance, there's a question of whether or not we know enough about Europa to design a mission that will cost at least $2.5B (I doubt that includes the SLS launch, either). Where should we land, what are the conditions, what are the right instruments to carry? Remember that Galileo returned only a trickle of information. The current lander proposal is a credit to JPL's engineers, but it makes a lot of assumptions that may prove wrong.
There is a very good argument to be made to do all of these things in steps, with pauses to collect and analyze the data before taking the next step. The typical complaint is that nobody really wants to wait 20-30 years to land on Europa. But is the goal to do it now so that we can see it, or do it right?
Europa landers will suffer from the same problem as Venus landers -- it's a damn hostile environment and any lander is going to be bloody expensive and short lived. (While landers can survive days or even weeks at Europa, unlike Venus with present technology, Europa sits deep in a gigantic gravity well and lacks an atmosphere to provide braking.) Imagine the pain of your Europa lander sitting down and the camera shows that the spot you really, really want to sample is 20 m away. To avoid that, you need to find locations that have that condition across a landing eclipse, and then you want to make sure you design the lander for the conditions in that area.
What are the arguments for Europa rather than Enceladus?
Quote from: Tulse on 12/03/2018 07:19 pmWhat are the arguments for Europa rather than Enceladus? Because the message from 2001 A Space Odyssey was that we are not allowed to go to Europa. That, of course, is why we have to go there. Did you learn nothing as a child? When mother told you not to do something, it was because she was hiding something from you and therefore that's exactly what you did.
Because the message from 2001 A Space Odyssey 2010: Odyssey Two was that we are not allowed to go to Europa. That, of course, is why we have to go there. Did you learn nothing as a child? When mother told you not to do something, it was because she was hiding something from you and therefore that's exactly what you did.
Now, researchers at with NASA’s Glenn Research COMPASS team have devised an idea for a probe that could access that ocean: a nuclear-powered tunneling bot that could burrow through the moon’s icy shell to probe its composition and, potentially, access the watery darkness under it.The researchers dreamed up two versions of the “tunnelbot,” one of which would use a small nuclear reactor and the other of which would use a “radioactive heat source module.” In both cases, the tunnelbot would use excess heat from its reactors to melt the ice as it traveled down.As it went, the tunnelbot would analyze the ice and search it for signs of current or extinct life, reporting back to Earth with a fiber optic cable connected to communication equipment at Europa’s surface. It would even be equipped to explore lakes buried in the ice before it reached Europa’s oceanic depths.
The interiors of Europa and other watery moons in the outer solar system might be too geologically inactive to support life
Sounds like it is possible that if you’re visiting Europa just hoping to find life then you are wasting your time.Ocean Moons, Promising Targets in Search for Alien Life, Could Be Dead InsideQuoteThe interiors of Europa and other watery moons in the outer solar system might be too geologically inactive to support life
Europa Clipper will launch as soon as 2023, then trek out to the Jupiter system for about 40 close passes over the mysterious icy moon. Once it arrives, the spacecraft will gather vital information about the moon’s geology, composition and hidden interior ocean. But before the team can get to work building the spacecraft, it has one final review to pass.
But there are new challenges to tackle as well, like selecting a path for the spacecraft to follow around the Jupiter system, in a process called trajectory planning, which Senske jokingly refers to as “black magic.” (The spacecraft won’t orbit Europa directly, because it would receive too much radiation if it did. But that restriction offers benefits as well—like catching a peek at other moons. “Io happens to be right there,” Richey said. “Who doesn’t want to look at the planetary body that looks like a pox-ridden abyss?”)
While they’re waiting on a decision, the team is focused on the current hurdle: addressing questions raised on reviews of individual components of the project and how they interact. Once those are addressed, the project will enter what mission designers call phase C, which includes setting the final budget for the project and beginning to build the real spacecraft. “That’s when the fun starts,” Richey said.