NASA and SpaceX Launch Europa Clipper to Search for Signs of Life on Jupiter’s Icy Moon

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and NASA are looking for signs of life in space. On Monday, the rocket launched to find liquid water on one of Jupiter’s moons.

David Bowie probably missed a little over 550 million kilometers when he asked if it was “Life on Mars”. Because Elon Musk and NASA are wondering if there could be signs of life on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

Monday night at At 18:06 Norwegian time they launched the rocket that will find out just that. On board is the unmanned probe “Europa Clipper”, which will orbit Jupiter and bring back samples from the moon.

But what exactly are they hoping to find? And when will the answers come?

Looking for signs of life around giant geysers

– Europa is probably the most interesting moon of Jupiter, says Per Barth Lilje. He is the head of the Department of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo.

The reason for the tension is that three of Jupiter’s four large moons are covered in a thick layer of ice, including Europa.

In 2016 and 2017, NASA researchers discovered that there may be water under the ice. And not just a pond or two, but large bodies of water like the ocean. Pictures of the moon showed what looks like water being thrown more than 200 kilometers up from the surface, before the water comes down again.

NASA described it as “geysers”. That’s where the great joy lies. Lily explains:

– Life needs a supply of energy and water. And it has been proven that there are life forms around such geysers under the surface of the deep sea in the Mediterranean Sea. One could hope that something similar has happened on Jupiter’s moors, he says.

So Europa isn’t the only one of Jupiter’s moons to get an Earth visit soon. Last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a rocket aimed at a nearby moon. It will be taken over by a Space X rocket on its way.

But there is no question of a new space race.

Do not respond for at least five years

– It is a bit funny that the European rocket does not go to Europe, laughs Lilje.

It’s all a collaboration between SpaceX, NASA and ESA. The European rocket, also known as “Juice”, orbits Ganymede, another of Jupiter’s icy moons.

It should arrive in 2031. “Europa Clipper” will “already” arrive in 2030. So, it will take time before Nasa and ESA get an answer about whether the water on Jupiter’s moons can support life.

Barth Lilje believes that it will take even longer to find an answer to whether life can or did exist on Jupiter’s moons. None of the space probes have equipment that can detect life, just look for what makes life possible.

– “Europa Clipper” will find interesting tracks and molecules. I think we will be closer to 2050 before we have a probe that can land and study Jupiter’s moons in detail. But that project is still on the drawing board, and may not be launched until around 2040, says Lilje.