-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Crawley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, February 26, 2001 8:25 AM
Subject: RE: Europa submersible hypothetical
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>> [Original Message]
>> From: Daniel R. Zeigler, Ph.D. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Date: 2/26/2001 9:32:32 AM
>> Subject: RE: Europa submersible hypothetical
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>I'm under the impression that the salt will highly contribute to its
>slushiness, rather than having a thick icy crust. But we need a good
>spectral analysis before seriously beginning any design work. Is there any
>chance of getting that data?
Even with all that salt, it's a safe bet that Europa does have an icy crust
anywhere from kilometers to dozens of km thick -- after all, its surfce is
cryogenically cold. But it also seems extremely likely that there are
pockets of liquid brine in it, some of them very close to the surface
(another good foraging ground for sings of life).
And -- once again -- the unviersal consensus of Europa scientists at this
point is that we do indeed need a hell of a lot more chemical composition
data on Europa. The Europa Orbiter in its current form has (scandalously)no
instrument at all for that purpose; the only new addition to its strawman
payload is a magnetometer to recheck Galileo's induced-field measurements.
But I'm starting to see tentative signs of a shakeup in NASA's Europa
program.
At the recent Outer Planets Missions Workshop, JPL revealed that it is
already doing considerable work on a small hard lander which might be
carried by the Europa Orbiter, and which would make some composition studies
among other things. (In the abstract, it's called "Seismoball". Leslie
Tamppari tells me that it's now been renamed "Europa Pathfinder", but also
says she can't tell me anything more about it until May. And JPL's advanced
missions design group has been working for at least a year on something --
probably the same thing -- called "Europa Scout".) Also, NASA's Solar
System Exploration Subcommittee is scheduled to discuss the Europa program
at its latest meeting tomorrow and Wednesday in Washington -- and while,
unfortunately, I can't attend this time, I'll E-mail my contacts there to
try to find out what was said. Finally, the National Academy of Sciences'
"COMPLEX" committee recently held a meeting on planetary exploration, in
which a draft of a set of recommendations about Europa was discussed --
although I have no idea what's in it.
Bruce Moomaw
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