NASA’s $5bn gamble: Could Jupiter’s moon Europa be hiding alien life?

NASA’s much-anticipated mission to investigate Jupiter‘s moon Europa is now officially underway. On 14th October 2024, the Europa Clipper spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, embarking on a six-year journey to the icy moon, in search of answers to one of the universe’s most profound questions: could there be life beyond Earth?

A Mission Decades in the Making

The Europa Clipper mission, costing $5.2 billion, is one of NASA’s most expensive scientific endeavours, aiming to determine whether the icy, ocean-bearing moon Europa might harbor the conditions necessary to support life. The mission will orbit Jupiter and make a staggering 49 close flybys of Europa, providing unprecedented data about its ice-covered surface, subsurface ocean, and potential habitability.

Europa, one of Jupiter’s 95 moons, is particularly fascinating for scientists. Researchers believe beneath its thick icy crust lies a massive saltwater ocean that, combined with the energy from the moon’s tidal interactions with Jupiter, may contain all the necessary ingredients for microbial life. The Europa Clipper, however, will not search directly for life; instead, its nine instruments—including magnetometers, spectrometers, and advanced cameras—will investigate if the conditions are suitable for life to exist.

Technical Challenges and a Rocky Start

The journey leading up to the launch has been anything but smooth. The mission was originally intended to launch on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which would have allowed a more direct path to Jupiter. However, potential hardware compatibility issues with the SLS forced NASA to look for commercial launch alternatives, eventually awarding the contract to SpaceX in 2021 for $178 million, a small fraction compared to the cost of using the SLS.

Launching aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, Europa Clipper will take an indirect route, flying by Mars in 2025 and Earth in 2026, before arriving at Jupiter in April 2030. Once there, it will spend four years studying Europa from a distance of as close as 25 kilometers to the moon’s surface.

NASA also faced a critical issue earlier this year when over a thousand transistors in the Clipper’s systems were found to be vulnerable to the intense radiation belts surrounding Jupiter. This discovery triggered a months-long investigation, ultimately leading NASA to modify the spacecraft to withstand these harsh conditions, ensuring it could survive multiple flybys of the radiation-rich environment.

Europa Clipper’s Ambitious Science Goals

The spacecraft, weighing 5,700 kilograms and equipped with solar arrays extending over 30 meters, is now bound to answer some of humanity’s most significant scientific questions. The primary objective is not to find direct evidence of life but to determine if the moon’s subsurface ocean possesses the right combination of chemicals and conditions—water, energy, and organic compounds—that could support life.

Gina DiBraccio, acting director of NASA’s planetary science division, reiterated during a recent briefing that the mission is “not a life-detection mission but a habitability investigation.” Robert Pappalardo, the project scientist, emphasized the need to establish whether Europa’s environment is fit for life to thrive in its hidden oceans.

Europa Clipper’s arrival will coincide with a similar mission by the European Space Agency (ESA), called the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), which will be primarily exploring Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Callisto. Scientists hope that by combining the findings of both missions, they will get a comprehensive view of Jupiter’s diverse moons, ultimately aiding in our understanding of potentially habitable environments beyond Earth.

The Endgame: A Final Dive Into the Unknown

After completing its flybys, NASA plans for a dramatic end to the Europa Clipper mission: crashing it into Ganymede, another of Jupiter’s intriguing moons. This intentional crash will prevent any potential contamination of Europa, ensuring that its environment remains pristine for future missions that may one day directly search for signs of extraterrestrial life.

The hope behind this mission resonates deeply with many in the scientific community. Cynthia Phillips, a Europa Clipper project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, expressed her excitement about finally seeing Europa’s surface up close after years of anticipation. “I’ve dreamed of returning to Europa since the Galileo era,” she said, referring to NASA’s earlier mission to the Jupiter system. Phillips added, “I have to be patient for another six years, but it will be worth the wait.”

For now, all eyes are on this ambitious $5 billion mission as it cruises toward Europa—a voyage of discovery that may bring us closer than ever to finding out whether we are alone in the universe.