Europa

Nasa’s mission to explore life on Jupiter’s moon Europa is moving into the development stage with the completion of the first major concept review.

The space research organisation has completed the preliminary concept level, where it surveyed Europa in detail and investigated its habitability.

Europa programme executive Joan Salute said: "It’s a great day for science.

"We are thrilled to pass the first major milestone in the lifecycle of a mission that will ultimately inform us on the habitability of Europa."

In the development or the ‘formulation’ phase, a spacecraft is planned to be launched to Jupiter in the 2020s.

Once the spacecraft reaches Jupiter’s orbit after several years, it would orbit the planet about every two weeks, providing many opportunities for close flybys of Europa.

"Observations of Europa have provided us with tantalising clues over the last two decades, and the time has come to seek answers to one of humanity’s most profound questions."

During the mission period, the spacecraft is planned to have 45 flybys, where it would capture the images of the moon’s icy surface at high resolution.

The images would be analysed to understand the composition of the moon and the structure of its interior and icy shell.

Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is studying the multiple-flyby mission concept, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, since 2011.

Nasa’s Washington science mission directorate associate administrator John Grunsfeld said: "Today we’re taking an exciting step from concept to mission, in our quest to find signs of life beyond Earth.

"Observations of Europa have provided us with tantalising clues over the last two decades, and the time has come to seek answers to one of humanity’s most profound questions."

About the size of Earth’s moon, Europa is considered one of the most likely places in the solar system to have signs of life.

The moon is suspected to have an ocean beneath its frozen crust. If proven to be true, the ocean could contain double the amount of water as that of Earth, giving scope to support simple organisms.

Previously, Nasa has launched the Galileo mission to Jupiter in the 1990s.

Image: Europa is considered to have signs of life. Photo: courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.