E-Lander Dream Still Alive: Pushing for “Permanent” Presence in Europa´s Oceans

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL Clean Room developing tech for Europa´s Oceans 

If you marvelled about what the Mars explorers Spirit and Opportunity pulled off back in the day then you had the chills when the Europa Lander was announced.

Even today after the Europa Lander has been officially discontinued from the Europa Clipper Mission -replaced by a “cheaper” Fly-by mission, the dream of the Europa Lander has not extinguished. Today the Europa Lander dream is much alive thanks to the work of many. Just think about it...to be able to drone scan and survey a moon 628.3 million kilometers away. Where liquid oceans await...under the ice.

NASA and other agencies continue to develop Europa Lander technology. While officially a Lander is not included in the next Europa Mission what could happen if a Lander is ready to be space-borne by the date is still unknown. After all the Apollo Moon Rover was not officially included to touch Moon Soil until the "very last hour". Landers and “permanent presence” are the only way to conduct exhaustive exploration. Some respected scientists believe that the Search for Life can only be conducted seriously by touching ground and staying there.

On July 6 Astrobiology NASA reported that the key to life finding was in a “Big Repeating Molecule”.

“As NASA inches closer to launching new missions to the Solar System’s outer moons in search of life, scientists are renewing their focus on developing a set of universal characteristics of life that can be measured,” Marc Kaufman wrote for Astrobiology NASA.

In the report the work of Chemist and Astrobiologist Steven Benner is highlighted. Benner has developed a method to detect life.

"...life’s signature is not necessarily found in the presence of particular elements and compounds, nor in its effects on the surrounding environment, and is certainly not something visible to the naked eye (or even a sophisticated camera)," NASA explains.

“..If it doesn’t talk or move in front of the camera we are left with developing a very challenging set of instruments that can only measure attributes. So polyelectrolytes are one more to consider,” they add.

Benner´s method can only be tested with Landers, Fly-By missions don´t do the trick.

NASA keeps the Europa Lander Dream alive by continual calls for tech development. Just last month they sent out a new call for the development of instruments that might one day sample the ice of Europa.

NASA has become really robotic, AI and drone driven in the past years -a natural step of evolution in the exploration of space. After decades of Space Exploration and only scratching the surface of infinity with great accomplishment NASA is now on the edge of making the next massive step. First it was water, and NASA has already achieved that. Ocean Worlds and Moons are today known to be very common in our solar system and beyond. What is inevitably coming is the discovery of life beyond our Planet. This life will sure by micro-organic in some form and will sure be found in an ocean beyond our planet. Europa is the place everyone wants to go to.

Since 2015 NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has been developing new technologies for use on future missions to ocean worlds. Technologies range from icebreakers, to samplers and robotic arms.

All these technologies were developed as part of the Ocean Worlds Mobility and Sensing study, a research project funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington.

"In the future, we want to answer the question of whether there's life on the moons of the outer planets -on Europa, Enceladus and Titan," Tom Cwik leader of JPL's Space Technology Program said. "We're working with NASA Headquarters to identify the specific systems we need to build now, so that in 10 or 15 years, they could be ready for a spacecraft."

May this year the NASA also highlighted the work of Goddard scientist Will Brinckerhoff. His instrument developed for the exploration of Mars could be used to search for life in out-of-this.world oceans.

Will Brinckerhoff, a NASA scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, helped build a mass spectrometer for the European Space Agency’s 2020 ExoMars Rover mission. He then leveraged the same model to create an even more capable instrument for a future NASA Mars mission. He now is parlaying these experiences to build yet another instrument under a new multi-million-dollar technology development award.

The latest incarnation, the Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation, or EMILI, would search the surfaces and subsurfaces of Jupiter’s moon Europa or other icy moons for molecular biosignatures: structures or patterns of organic compounds indicating the presence of current or past life on these intriguing worlds.

The work to explore Europa will sure require inter-agency cooperation as well as private sector participation. SpaceX -a massive contributor to Space exploration and the Space sector continues to grow in that field.

SpaceX is known for its Dragon rockets, reusable rockets and now radical recycled space-craft technology. They are also known for cutting costs dramatically, landing rockets in the middle of the ocean and are described as Revolutionary. Beyond their success rate they also have a strong obsession with Mars and Space Exploration.

Just two years back SpaceX was dreaming up concepts which today they have tested with success. That is how fast they operate. Recently SpaceX made history once again.

On July 5 AIAA -Shaping the future of Aerospace reported that the splashdown of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule on Monday marked a historic first, as it was the first spacecraft of its kind to return to Earth from space twice. “Recycling such capsules is vital to reducing the costs of going to space. The Dragon capsule was on its second supply mission to the ISS,” SpaceX communicated.

The company not only safely recovered a twin-flight recycled capsule but recovered the Falcon 9 Rockets which they used to lift off the ground the capsule and take it to Space -twice.

“Following the launch, the Falcon 9 rockets safely landed back on Earth at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The landing also marks SpaceX’s the fifth consecutive on-land landing, fostering a new era of recoverable vehicle technologies,” International press reported.

SpaceX continues to push the boundaries and drops costs using simple but out-of-the-box solutions. They assure that they have blue prints for spaceships which could explore the entire solar system.

The European Space Agency ESA -which is lately chipping more than everyone expected and reaping results, has been remarked by scientists as another potential partner for the Europa Missions.

ESA has JUICE the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer -an interplanetary spacecraft in development which is set to pay a visit to three of Jupiter's Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa but works in close relationship with NASA.

A Lander is not a short-lived opportunity it is a constant presence in distant planets and systems. Still today Mars Curiosity breaks through new evidence of an ocean which dried up long time ago.

On June 9 NASA through data collected through its extension Curiosity found once again new water evidence on Mars.

“NASA scientists have found a wide diversity of minerals in the initial samples of rocks collected by the Curiosity rover in the lowermost layers of Mount Sharp on Mars, suggesting that conditions changed in the water environments on the planet over time,” NASA reported.

Despite the data began its way to be analyzed in 2012 and 2014 it was only recently that a new paper was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, scientists in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science ARES Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Once again -and despite all the drawbacks Mars Landers and explorers had which can be updated today the small sympathetic drone proved that exploration can be empowered with longevity.

NASA has had hands on in the neighborhood for very long time now. In fact so long that they explain that no one under 20 years of age has experienced a day without NASA at Mars.

With a secure Europa Lander the same statement could be true for the next 30 years after a Lander Mission.

“In the 20 years since Pathfinder's touchdown, eight other NASA landers and orbiters have arrived successfully, and not a day has passed without the United States having at least one active robot on Mars or in orbit around Mars,” NASA recently communicated.

Today five NASA robots and three from other nations are currently examining Mars.

"Without Mars Pathfinder, there could not have been Spirit and Opportunity, and without Spirit and Opportunity, there could not have been Curiosity," Pathfinder Project Scientist Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, said of the subsequent generations of Mars rovers. JPL is now developing another Mars rover for launch in 2020.

It took many missions to Mars to finally get explorers there and have a “permanent presence” in the Red Planet. Will it take three missions to make it happen to Europa or can just one get the job done?

With every mission a lot is learnt but NASA already has sufficient data to pull off a successful lander mission to Europa. On June 30 the agency reported from Juno´s spacecraft flyby over Jupiter. Juno has explored -distant upon many of Jupiter´s Moon. Most of the exciting news on Europa have been triggered by Juno´s data. Juno has now over an entire year orbiting the Big Giant.

"The success of science collection at Jupiter is a testament to the dedication, creativity and technical abilities of the NASA-Juno team," Rick Nybakken, project manager for Juno from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

It seems that you can scrap the budget of a project, push the file under a rug, stack, bag it  and file it under thousands of other similar files but still this does not prevent the dream to live on and grow.  

A “permanent presence” in Europa´s Ocean, an Europa Lander, still a dream...still much alive