Projects
Europa Mission Campaign
There may be life out there beyond our pale blue planet...life with no connection to us, life with an ancient history of its own, life that -- if discovered -- would rewrite natural history as we know it.
That life may even be right here in our solar system. Close enough for us to reach, to examine, to awe us, to view in its natural environment, and to give our science a massive push forward.
We are speaking of the tantalizing Jovian moon Europa. In a solar system full of astonishing planets and their moons, Europa stands out. Scientists believe that beneath its unique frozen and cracked surface, there may exist an enormous ocean of liquid water, perhaps twice as much as in all of Earth's oceans.
The evidence for this -- knowledge gained during past missions, such as the twin Voyager probes and the Galileo orbiter -- is so compelling that just two years ago, the National Research Council's Decadal Study (a project of the U.S. National Academy of Science) deemed a mission to explore Europa to be of the highest scientific priority.
Yet today, there is no mission going to Europa.
That's a terrible omission, which is why The Planetary Society is now launching our international Explore Europa Campaign -- a full-bore effort to convince the world's space agencies to immediately unite and commit to sending a spacecraft to this intriguing world.
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