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Has anyone heard anything about any missions to Europa? I was watching the Discovery Channel this weekend and they had a show call "95 Worlds and counting". It went on to talk about the various moons within the solar system. It was a very interesting show. Anywho, during the show, they mentioned about landing a probe on Europa and using a "heated" drill (I forget the actual term that was used) to melt through the ice and let loose a small robotic probe to go exploring. The time frame that they kept using was "...in 50 years,...". It seems that we have the technology now, to send a probe to Europa. I would think that the drilling part would be the part for concern i.e., power and maintenance. It would be interesting to see what exactly is under all that ice!
One day...we will get to Mars and the rest of the galaxy!! Hopefully it will be by Nuclear power!!!
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Actually people are considering sending an orbiter to Europa in the not too distant future to study Europa's surface for areas where the seepage from the liquid ocean might be coming up to the surface. Some people think it might be easier to just scout the moon for such areas of seepage and then send a lander that would pick up the materials off the surface instead of drilling down. That drill would have to go through kilometers of ice before reaching the ocean and I'm not sure if we could provide it with the power to do that short of using nuclear. The article is here.
To achieve the impossible you must attempt the absurd
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