NASA reveals how spacecraft will land on tantalizing ocean world

It's a ngo to hunt for life.

NASA is headed to Jupiter's fascinating satellite Europa this year. Scientists fishy a heavy water sloshes beneath nan icy world's crust.

The looming mission, called Europa Clipper, will motorboat successful October, sending a spacecraft nan magnitude of a hoops tribunal to make astir 50 flybys by nan distant Jovian moon, assessing whether it could harbor conditions suitable for life. It won't, however, onshore connected nan crystal crust.

Yet nan space agency is already preparing an eager follow-up mission, aptly named Europa Lander, that will touch down connected nan moon's aboveground and excavation aliases drill into nan ice. "In this ngo concept, a spacecraft would onshore connected Europa and cod and study samples from astir 4 inches (10 centimeters) beneath nan surface, looking for signs of life," NASA explains.

The agency precocious released images of nan mission's unsocial landing gear, whose legs tin sorb a dense spacecraft's landing. Taken together, nan lander's metallic appendages make nan trade look spider-like. Engineers are preparing to trial these legs connected a level that will mimic a landing connected Europa.

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Below, you tin spot NASA unit moving connected this captious landing cogwheel astatine nan agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — nan aforesaid laboratory that designed and built missions for illustration nan Jupiter-orbiting Juno probe, nan legendary Voyager spacecraft, and nan Mars Perseverance rover.

The trade will request a robust landing system. It will transportation instruments that will excavation immoderate 4 inches into Europa's ice. "This is simply a extent astatine which nan analyzable chemistry of materials from nan water beneath would beryllium protected from nan damaging radiation that exists successful abstraction astir Jupiter," NASA explained. It will besides person a "miniature laboratory" aboard, which will look for signs of life, among different instruments.

For now, nan Europa Lander technically remains conscionable a "proposal." But engineers are preparing for its reality. First, though, nan Europa Clipper will scour nan intriguing Europan surface. After walking hundreds of millions of miles away, nan orbiting probe will get astatine nan icy destination successful 2030.

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