Proposed Mission to Jupiter System Achieves Milestone

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Feature: 2011-041 Feb. 04, 2011

Proposed Mission to Jupiter System Achieves Milestone

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-041&cid=release_2011-041

With input from scientists around the world, American and European scientists
working on the potential next new mission to the Jupiter system have articulated
their joint vision for the Europa Jupiter System Mission. The mission is a proposed
partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency. The scientists on the
joint NASA-ESA definition team agreed that the overarching science theme for the
Europa Jupiter System Mission will be "the emergence of habitable worlds around
gas giants."

The proposed Europa Jupiter System Mission would provide orbiters around two
of Jupiter's moons: a NASA orbiter around Europa called the Jupiter Europa
Orbiter, and an ESA orbiter around Ganymede called the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter.

"We've reached hands across the Atlantic to define a mission to Jupiter's water
worlds," said Bob Pappalardo, the pre-project scientist for the proposed Jupiter
Europa Orbiter, who is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif. "The Europa Jupiter System Mission will create a leap in scientific knowledge
about the moons of Jupiter and their potential to harbor life."

The new reports integrate goals that were being separately developed by NASA
and ESA working groups into one unified strategy.

The ESA report is being presented to the European public and science community
this week, and the NASA report was published online in December. The NASA
report is available at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag .

The proposed mission singles out the icy moons Europa and Ganymede as special
worlds that can lead to a broader understanding of the Jovian system and of the
possibility of life in our solar system and beyond. They are natural laboratories for
analyzing the nature, evolution and potential habitability of icy worlds, because
they are believed to present two different kinds of sub-surface oceans.

The Jupiter Europa Orbiter would characterize the relatively thin ice shell above
Europa's ocean, the extent of that ocean, the materials composing its internal
layers, and the way surface features such as ridges and "freckles" formed. It will
also identify candidate sites for potential future landers. Instruments that might be
on board could include a laser altimeter, an ice-penetrating radar, spectrometers
that can obtain data in visible, infrared and ultraviolet radiation, and cameras with narrow- and wide-angle capabilities. The actual instruments to fly would be selected through a NASA competitive call for proposals.

Ganymede is thought to have a thicker ice shell, with its interior ocean sandwiched
between ice above and below. ESA's Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter would investigate
this different kind of internal structure. The Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter would also
study the intrinsic magnetic field that makes Ganymede unique among all the solar
system's known moons. This orbiter, whose instruments would also be chosen
through a competitive process, could include a laser altimeter, spectrometers and
cameras, plus additional fields-and-particles instruments

The two orbiters would also study other large Jovian moons, Io and Callisto, with
an eye towards exploring the Jupiter system as an archetype for other gas giant
planets.

NASA and ESA officials gave the Europa Jupiter System Mission proposal priority
status for continued study in 2009, agreeing that it was the most technically
feasible of the outer solar system flagship missions under consideration.

Over the next few months, NASA officials will be analyzing the joint strategy and
awaiting the outcome of the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey by the National
Research Council of the U.S. National Academies. That survey will serve as a
roadmap for new NASA planetary missions for the decade beginning 2013.

For more information about the Europa Jupiter System Mission, go to
http://opfm.jpl.nasa.gov/europajupitersystemmissionejsm/ .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

-end-

Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

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