NASA's Europa Mission May Get a Lander After All

Initially intended as an orbiter, NASA is now exploring sending a small lander as well.


To the disappointment of more than a few people, when NASA announced the Europa Multiple Fly-by Mission, it had a big drawback: no lander. Instead, it would serve as an orbiter around Jupiter, with an orbit essentially set for a series of more than 40 fly-bys of the icy moon that hides a warm ocean under its crust. 

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But rejoice, Europa fans: NASA is reconsidering. Maybe.

At the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Space 2015, JPL project scientist Robert Pappalardo said the agency was "actively persuing" a small lander to piggy back onto the orbiter, including soliciting collaborations with the European Space Agency on a lander or impactor. Pappalardo suggested that it would be a "small surface package," which suggests that a rover is unlikely, though not impossible.

The lander may end up something like the Cassini Huygens probe, a stationary lander that imaged the surface of the moon on its descent. However, without an atmosphere to parachute down, the Europa lander would have to be durable enough to withstand an impact while preserving a scientific payload. There's no information on what that might be, though an April report from Spaceflight Now suggested that it might also be a microprobe to fly through Europa's geysers. 

Given the keen interest  in Europa, its likely that any secondary probe would be primarily concerned with finding evidence of extraterrestrial life on the moon. In the end, there may not be a lander. But if there isn't, NASA might miss a big opportunity to come closer to confirming life on the moon than an orbiter ever could. 


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