NASA said that they
think about how to send the unit to a satellite of Jupiter - Europe, which is
the fourth largest moon, the largest planet in the solar system. One of the
ideas is enclosed to send orbiter, which will make multiple flybys of the
satellite and study it to find ice under the surface of the posterior
probability of Europe Ocean.
In California, the NASA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, claim that the Office coordinated the project
advance the orbital unit around Europe.
On the basis of an estimate of the
project, the orbital drone can be launched in 2021 at a cost of about two
billion dollars U.S. He will have to study the surface of Europe to prepare for
the departure of the landing gear.
David Senske - project
coordinator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - says that the current science
says: Europe may be one of the most suitable places for possible location on
the Earth's life abroad. It is believed that, under a thick layer of ice that
covers Europe, should be located ocean, the depth of which can be up to one
hundred miles. In addition, the uneven structure of the ice indicates the
activity of the inner layers and the presence of heat energy, which also speaks
in favor of the possible presence of life.
The project was
minimized due to the high cost
David Senske also
claims that NASA has long been interested in the possibility of origin machine
to Europe. However, a few years ago in the department announced a project
mission Jupiter Europe Orbiter,
whose tasks included the study of Europe and the volcanically active moon of Jupiter
- Io. However, the project was curtailed due to too high costs, the price of
which totaled U.S. $ 4.7 billion.
D. Senske said that
agency was already stated that the concept of the project remains, though slash
functionality and reduce the cost of the machine. NASA said earlier that the
cost of the project will cut up to 2-billion. As reported in the department,
equipment for departure to Europe are so expensive because of the satellite
around the mark the largest radiological activity, and all the machines, sent
there, we have to equip the highest radiation protection. Besides all this, the
European ice is very thick, and scientific instruments, is located on the
fixtures must be capable of ocean "consider" through the thickness of
the ice.
Even with all this,
Europe around the unit would work just fine for the last thirty days, and then
another about a hundred-hundred ten days in advanced functionality.
"Orbital device
could collect a huge amount of data about Europe, however, as it may be, the possibility
of its incomparably lower in contrast to the lender. For example, we are
unlikely to be able to accurately study the orbits of the chemical composition
of the surface of Europe "- summed up David Senske.
Study and Research
First pictures from
space are made in Europe were space stations - "Pioneer 10",
"Pioneer 11", flying in 1973-1974. Around Jupiter the quality of
these images was better than what were available telescopes of the period, but
still they were vague and dull in comparison with the images later missions.
Thus, in March 1979
Europe with flight paths explored "Voyager 1" / maximum convergence
was 732,000 miles, and in July - "Voyager 2" / 190 000 km /. Space
devices transmit high-quality photographs of the satellite, and conducted a
series of measurements. The theory about the existence of a liquid ocean on the
satellite came thanks to information "Voyager."
The second in June 1994
a group of scientists from Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science
Institute, led by the Doyle Hall, found the presence of molecular oxygen in the
atmosphere of Europe. Such a discovery was made with the space telescope
"Hubble" Goddard spectrometer using high resolution image.
In the period 1999-2000
by Chandra observations were made of the Galilean satellites, which resulted in
the discovery of X-ray radiation in Europe and Io, registered in 2002
Jupiter system
investigated automatic probe "Galileo" from December 1995 to
September 2003 from the thirty-five revolutions around Jupiter eleven devices
were devoted to the study of Europe / closest approach was two hundred and one
kilometer /. "Galileo" satellite is examined in detail, received the
latest evidence in favor of the fact that the ocean there. In 2003, the "Galileo"
was deliberately destroyed in Jupiter's atmosphere to the future of unmanaged
devices from falling on Europe and brought to the satellite terrestrial
microorganisms.
Kosmoapparat "New
Horizons" in 2007, while flying on the way to Pluto around Jupiter,
presented new pictures of Europa's surface.
At present, the system
is approaching Jupiter "Juno", which was launched August 5, 2011 by
NASA, but it will not thoroughly explore Europe, since the main purpose of his
mission - is the polar regions of Jupiter. Scheduled release date of the device
"Juno" into orbit in August 2016
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