PAST AND FUTURE EXPLORATION

Although Europa hasn’t had the same close inspection as Enceladus, many spacecraft have made a flying visit of the moon as they use Jupiter’s enormous mass to provide a gravity assist, using the planet’s mass to slingshot to a faster speed. These visits began with NASA’s Pioneer 10 and 11 in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Afterwards came the two Voyager spacecraft in 1979, sending back pictures of Europa’s icy surface in stunning resolution. This began speculation that the moon had a subsurface ocean, gathering traction when NASA’s Galileo spent eight years at the Jovian system. This longduration study revealed a host of exciting new discoveries about Europa and its fellow moons.

The future is very exciting for the exploration of the Galilean moons. Two major space exploration organisations – the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA – are looking to visit. Due to launch in June 2023 is the ESA’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE), which will head to the system in order to study Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. The following year – at least assuming there are no further delays – NASA will launch its Europa Clipper, solely focused on studying Europa. After much discussion, the Europa Clipper team decided that due to Jupiter’s radiation it would be best to put the orbiter in an elliptical orbit that makes 45 close flybys over the course of roughly three years. Proposed as a separate mission launching around 2027 is a Europa Lander that will complement the Europa Clipper mission.

“Tidal heating is what maintains the ocean and provides the energy to replenish the surface”