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RGClark

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 709

Website

Low cost Europa lander missions.

Lander missions to Europa possible for costs at the few hundred million dollars range, comparable to the costs for the Mars Pathfinder lander:

Low cost Europa lander missions.
http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2015/0 … sions.html

  Bob Clark

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Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):

      “Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,879

Re: Low cost Europa lander missions.

I posted about funding for a mission at this topic:

Europa Orbiter - Possible In What Form?

Here comes the slim chance to none but it comes with a hefty price tag...

NASA's big new rocket, built to send humans to Mars, may start with robotic probes

President Barack Obama included $30 million in NASA's 2016 budget for a major robotic mission to Europa, a moon of Jupiter thought to harbor vast oceans of water and possibly life, it marked a significant shift in agency planning.
Congress has long wanted to send a probe to Europa, and has, in recent years, added money to NASA's final budget to begin planning for such a mission.

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,879

Re: Low cost Europa lander missions.

Report Finds SLS Cost and Schedule Estimates Tight, but on Track

NASA, however, considers SLS more of a capability rather than an end-to-end program. SLS, Orion and ground systems are all managed separately through NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The agency is intentionally putting the horse first, hoping Congress will let it pull a cart to Mars one day. Potential future SLS payloads include components of the Asteroid Redirect Mission, as well as a robotic mission to Europa.

Boeing SLS Europa mission promotional placard

RGClark

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 709

Website

Re: Low cost Europa lander missions.

The New Horizons mission to Pluto further confirms the great interest the public has for planetary missions. The Mars Curiosity mission got over a billion hits to the NASA web page over a year. And New Horizons mission web page got 10 million hits on July 14th alone.

A lander mission to Europa to explore the subsurface ocean could result in the most revolutionary scientific discovery in human history: the discovery of life on another world. Such a discovery would dwarf even the Apollo missions in importance.

Then it is notable that following the commercial space approach such a mission could be privately financed at the few hundred million dollars range. This would be low enough considering the great interest such a mission would get that it could even be profitable from advertising.

Then I have changed my sig file to indicate such a revolutionary mission could be accomplished at such low cost and in a near time frame.

Bob Clark

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Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):

      “Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”