Outside of the planet Earth, Europa, Jupiter's moon, is thought to have the most promise in the solar system in terms of supporting present-day life. NASA is all set to determine if this is in fact true as the agency moves on from conceptualizing a mission to actual development.

NASA's mission concept is simple: conduct a comprehensive survey of Europa to investigate habitability. After the agency completed the first major review of the mission's specifics, it is now beginning a development phase called formulation.

"Observations of Europa have provided us with tantalizing clues over the last two decades, and the time has come to seek answers to one of humanity's most profound questions," said John Grunsfeld, NASA Science Mission Directorate associate administrator.

Jupiter's Galileo mission in the 1990s showed strong evidence that the Europa features an ocean under its frozen crust. Should the ocean does exist, it is projected to be big enough to hold double the amount of water the Earth has. With a rocky sea floor, abundant salt water as well as the chemistry and energy from tidal heating, the moon has the necessary components required to support life for simpler organisms.

According to plans for the new mission, a spacecraft will be headed for Jupiter in the 2020s, reaching the planet's orbit after several years. It will then go around the planet every couple of weeks to have as many opportunities as possible of flying by closely to Jupiter's moon. The mission estimates about 45 flybys will be made, each of which would be a chance for the spacecraft to capture Europa's icy surface in high definition and examine the structure and composition of the moon's icy shell and interior.

Last May 26, NASA announced the scientific payload that will accompany the mission to Europa. Institutions tasked with providing the instruments for the payload include: the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at the Johns Hopkins University; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); the University of Colorado, Boulder; the Arizona State University, Tempe; the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio; and the University of Texas at Austin.

According to Joan Salute, a program executive for Europa from the Washington headquarters of the agency, NASA is overjoyed to meet the first milestone in a mission's life cycle, which will ultimately shed light on how habitable Jupiter's moon will me.

Since 2011, the JPL and the APL have been collaborating on studying the mission concept. The JPL is assigned with managing the Europa mission.

Photo: Marc Van Norden | Flickr