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Nasa plan to copy space oddity4/9/2023 ![]() ![]() Naturally, NASA's proposed Europa Mission is different from fiction. And then there's Europa Report, a more recent film about a fateful manned mission to the moon that discovers life, with frightening consequences! Clarke's Space Odysseyseries deals with the possibility of Jupiter being transformed into a small sun so that life on Europa could flourish. Retherford/Southwest Research Instituteįor decades, the possibility of life on Europa has been the subject of interest for both scientists and speculative thinkers. This ocean is kept warm thanks to the influence of Jupiter, who's gravity causes Europa's interior to flex, producing geothermal energy that heats the water closest to the planet's core.Īrtistic concept of a water jet on Europa's icy surface, with Jupiter and the Sun in the background. Between the outer layer of ice and the core, a warm water ocean is believed to exist, one that is capable of supporting life. The current scientific consensus is that Europa's interior is differentiated between an icy mantle and a rocky core. "Observations of Europa have provided us with tantalizing clues over the last two decades, and the time has come to seek answers to one of humanity’s most profound questions." “Today we’re taking an exciting step from concept to mission, in our quest to find signs of life beyond Earth," he said. The announcement was made on June 17th from NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, where associate administrator John Grunsfeld announced that they had completed their first step on the mission. ![]() And just last month, NASA announced that its mission concept had successfully completed its first major review and is now entering into the next phase of development. Little wonder then why NASA is planning on sending a mission to Europa in the coming years. These findings were further supported by the Galileo mission of the 1990s, which provided ample evidence of a salt water ocean beneath the moon's icy mantle. And ever since the Voyager missions, which passed through the Jovian system in 1979, Europa has come to be seen as one of the prime candidates in the search for life beyond Earth. As one of the four major satellites discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, its discovery helped to trigger a revolution in astronomy. In 2020 alone, the agency had to perform three such maneuvers, according to former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.For decades, astronomers and scientists have been fascinated by Jupiter's moon of Europa. The International Space Station has been hit by space debris in the past, and over the course of the station's history, NASA has had to perform at least 26 special maneuvers to dodge wayward objects that wandered too close to the orbiting outpost. It's estimated that these pieces of debris will remain in orbit for decades or longer, posing collision risks that could further exacerbate the problem. The collision created a cloud of more than 2,000 pieces of space junk measuring at least 4 inches wide. One of the most notable examples of an orbital crash occurred in 2009, when a defunct Russian satellite known as Cosmos 2251 smashed into a U.S.-based Iridium 33 communications satellite. "If we have a higher and higher density of objects in these very narrow regions of space, that will lead to more collisions over time." "Even though space is big, the usable orbits where we keep our satellites are quite small," Rosengren said. Overcrowding in orbit is also exacerbated by companies such as SpaceX and OneWeb that are assembling huge "megaconstellations" of internet satellites around Earth.īits of space junk, which fly through orbit at up to 18,000 miles per hour, can threaten other functioning spacecraft and pose safety risks to astronauts on the International Space Station. If successful, ELSA-d could pave the way for future commercial services that reduce the amount of debris in space and promote more sustainable operations in orbit.Ĭoncerns about space debris have grown in recent years as low-Earth orbit has become more congested and as society's reliance on satellite systems for telecommunications, GPS and myriad other everyday functions has grown. Known as ELSA-d, the mission will test technologies to capture an object in low-Earth orbit and move it to a lower altitude, where it will eventually burn up harmlessly in Earth's atmosphere. On Saturday, a new mission is set to launch that aims to clean up some of the debris that is languishing in orbit around the planet. ![]()
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