NASA scientists are preserve to figure out on the Europa Lander , despite Trump ’s proposal tocut its fundingin NASA ’s next financial yr .
The decision to scrap plans for a lander on Europa came via the Trump Administration ’s first federal budget last month . “ [ T]he Budget provides no financial support for a multi - billion - dollar mission to land on Europa , ” it stated .
However , at a meeting of the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science at the National Academies in Washington last week , it was reveal that scientists were still working on the mission before it gets junk .
“ We still have enough funding to make it through the end of the year for development , ” tell Barry Goldstein from NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) in California , reportedSpaceNews . “ We ’re go to pursue the mission construct review and allow the fries hang where they may as we proceed . ”
While the Europa Lander is being scrapped , the budget still include funding for an orbit mission call theEuropa Clipperin the 2020s . However , many had been hopeful of sending a lander there too , either on this mission or another , to get invaluable samples from the surface .
Europa is recall to house a vast and possibly inhabitable liquid water sea under its icy airfoil , but accessing it is a snatch hard . It ’s buried under 10 of klick of ice , so we do n’t have much hope of acquire down there . But we can study the surface , and perhaps find stuff that ’s been ejected from underground .
In fact , NASA hasbeen testinga mixture of deoxyephedrine tools that it may one solar day manipulation on Europa . These include a thermos bottleful filled with plutonium to melt through the ice , long and foldable automatic sleeve , and even cycle that could wield the icy surface .
The estimate at the second is for a lander to found in October to December 2025 , arriving at Jupiter in the 2030s . It would land on the Earth’s surface using the samesky cranethat delivered the Curiosity bird of passage to the surface of Mars , and remain operational for at least 20 days . At the end of its life , it would utilise a “ thermite - based incinerator ” to demolish itself , according to SpaceNews , to guarantee it did not contaminate the Earth’s surface if left wild .
Sadly , if Trump ’s budget proposal give-up the ghost through , the Europa Lander will be no more . But as it ’s presently got financial support , it seems scientist are doing as much research into it as possible before it faces the chop , with the opening of rekindle interest in the future tense .
