Well, I guess that's the price of getting to the show after the curtain goes
up. Sorry if I sounded like such a dunce, but I really did just get caught
up in what's really being done. I am trying to start a sci fi story series
based on the moons of Jupiter, and the idea of mining Europa for whatever is
there intrigued me. To gain some semblance of credibility, I started
searching the web for info, and found this site, plus the NASA site and
several others. Got lots of interesting info, and hope to get more. These
discussions show me how much I have to learn--as someone said long ago: "The
more I learn, the more I realize how little I know." Please be patient with
my ignorance--that can be cured!
:-)
----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Moomaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Icepick Europa Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 11:58 PM
Subject: Re: OK, OK, OK, Enough!
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gail & Roberta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Monday, February 19, 2001 8:49 PM
> Subject: OK, OK, OK, Enough!
>
>
> Haven't we milked this one dry already? What does all this have to do with
> the possible exploration of one of Jupiter's moons anyhow? So Fox came up
> with a stupid, but apparently entertaining show that no one in their right
> minds would believe? Isn't sci-fi by it's very nature the same thing? OK,
> forget I said that. I love sci-fi, I love to watch reruns of Star Trek in
> all its permutations, even Babylon 5 is entertaining. But science? Naw,
and
> I don't even pretend it is.
> So let's get back to discussing Europa.
> When we land there, will we need flotation devices to float on the
possibly
> slushy ice? If we land on an ice island and want to drill through, will
the
> island drift so much that we'll lose our probes? Is there an atmosphere?
How
> hot is the core? Lots more interesting stuff to speculate about than some
> crap served up on TV, don't you think?
>
>
> The trouble is that this group has already long since chewed all that over
> extremely thoroughly, throughout 1999 and 2000 (apparently before you got
> here) -- and we're simply running out of specifically Europa-related stuff
> to discuss. (Hopefully there will soon be some more of it, as I recently
> noted.) That's precisely why many of us have moved over to Jason Perry's
> "ISSDG" and "Jupiter List" chat groups, which deal with Solar System
> exploration in general.
>
> Regarding your questions: Europa's crust is solid ice and anywhere from
> several to several dozen km thick -- so we certainly don't need to worry
> about floating on the surface or drifting on ice floes. It has an
extremely
> faint trace of atmosphere -- only a few hundred-millionths as dense as
> Earth's -- and we have a good idea of most of the gases making it up. The
> core may or may not be hot enough to provide any volcanic vents at all on
> the floor of the subsurface ocean, but most of that floor is certainly
near
> 0 deg C, just like most of Earth's ocean floor. (Europa's tidal heating
> from Jupiter is only about 1/10 of Io's.) This still leaves a tremendous
> number of interesting questions about the place, of course -- with one of
> the most lively recent subjects being an increased feeling among
scientists
> that Jupiter's radiation may produce a disproportionate concentration of
> nutrients and other biologically useful chemicals in the TOP few meters of
> Europa's ice, and that these may both be slowly transported down into the
> underground ocean, or nourish microbes in local pockets of near-surface
> water within the ice. (This, in turn, would mean that a productive search
> for Europan life may not have to dig nearly as far down into the ice as
the
> originaly Cryobot would have -- but then, there was some feeling along
those
> lines anyway, since it's always seemed likely that long-dead but extremely
> well-preserved Europan microbes may be preserved in the ice even near its
> top.)
>
> Bruce Moomaw
>
> ==
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