Robot Submarine on Jupiter Moon Europa is 'Holy Grail' Mission for Planetary Science

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

Date: 22 March 2012 Time: 07:00 AM ET

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Europa, as viewed from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft. Visible are plains of bright ice, cracks that run to the horizon, and dark patches that likely contain both ice and dirt. CREDIT: NASA/Ted Stryk View full size image

Sending a submarine to the bottom of the ocean on Jupiter's icy moon Europa is the most exciting potential mission in planetary science, according to one prominent researcher.
Europa's seafloor may well be capable of supporting life as we know it today, said Cornell University's Steve Squyres, lead scientist for NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, which is currently roaming the Red Planet. So a Europa robotic submarine mission is at the top of his wish list, though it likely won't happen anytime soon.
"This is fantastic stuff," Squyres said Wednesday (March 21) at a conference called Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space in The Woodlands, Texas. "This is the holy grail of planetary exploration right here."

MORE: http://www.space.com/14997-jupiter-europa-ocean-submarine-robot.html

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