Why is it so hard to get to Europa (Jupiter's moon)?
Europa is one of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, known as the Galilean Satellites,
in honor of its discoverer Galileo Galilei, who discovered them by looking
through his telescope in the year 1610. When Galileo discovered these satellites,
he did not imagine that 400 years later, enormous water reserves would be discovered in this place.
Today, it is known that Europa is one of the bodies with the most significant amount of
water in the solar system and that it could even have all the conditions to host living beings.
But... If it's such an essential place for the search for extraterrestrial life,
why haven't we been able to send a human-crewed spacecraft to explore this frozen world better?
Why is it so hard to get to Europe?
Stay with us to find out! First approach
On March 2, 1972, the Pioneer 10 space exploration probe was launched from Cape
Canaveral. This spacecraft was part of a NASA program that aimed to take advantage
of an alignment gap of the outer planets to explore the solar system's gas giant planets.
This spacecraft would have many scientific instruments that would
be of great importance to know the mysteries hidden in the solar system's outer planets,
about which very little was known at the time. Launched with NASA's Atlas-Centaur rocket,
with a high thrust force, the probe would leave Earth on a fixed course towards Jupiter to use it
as a catapult to head for the outer solar system. The Atlas-Centaur rocket accelerated the probe for
a net interval of 17 minutes, reaching a speed of 51,682 km/h (32,114 mph). Several instruments were
activated to perform tests as the spacecraft moved through the Van Allen radiation belts.
Ninety minutes after launch, the spacecraft reached interplanetary space, and 11 hours later,
it approached the moon closely, becoming the fastest artificial object at that moment.
The initial momentum and planetary alignment that occurred at that time
helped the Pioneer probe reach the orbit of Jupiter on December 3, 1973, becoming the
first space probe to explore this distant planet. But Pioneer also took advantage of that moment to
explore the moon Europa, where, for the first time in history, we could see that it was a
much more complex world than we thought. Two years later, the Pioneer 11 probe
would also get close to Jupiter's moons, capturing new images with better definition.
Both probes managed to cover the distance between Earth and Jupiter thanks to the vast initial
momentum and the approaching gap that occurs roughly every 13 months between the two planets.
Until then, the data sent back by the probes did not yet show that Europa could be an exciting
moon, but that changed with the Voyager missions. The Great Find
However, the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes were much more fruitful than initially estimated. The
Voyager probes would give us the probes that could best reveal the secrets of the Jovian system.
In the 1979s, after the apparent success of the Pioneer probes,
NASA proceeded to continue the Grand Tour Program. This NASA program initially aimed to send two
sets of robotic probes to all the planets in the outer solar system, i.e., Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which was still considered a planet at the time.
Thanks to this program, the first group of spacecraft would be successfully launched,
Pioneer 10 and 11. However, the project's enormous cost of about $1 billion led to
its cancellation and replacement by the Mariner program, which later became the Voyager program.
These spacecraft would have similar objectives to the Pioneer, with the vast difference being that
they would have much more advanced technology, which had been developed thanks to the success
of the Pioneer probes. They would also carry more fuel for more observing maneuvers and a
longer-lasting battery that would allow them to use much more sophisticated scientific equipment.
Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977, from Cape Canaveral and would arrive
at Jupiter in January 1979, while Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977, and would
arrive at Jupiter on July 9 of the same year. Both probes would reach Jupiter in two years,
taking longer than the Pioneer probes because they carried a heavier payload. This is a reminder that
every gram taken into space drastically changes travel time; the heavier a spacecraft weighs,
the longer it will take to reach its destination. The Voyager probes were the first to take the
sharpest images of Jupiter and also the first to provide essential data on the composition
and geological structure of Europa, which at that time had already become a place of great
scientific interest, as its high albedo indicated that it probably had ice, which was confirmed by
the images of the Voyager probes. A new goal
The two groups of probes, Pioneer and Voyager, initially aimed to
take advantage of the approaching gap between the gaseous planets to explore them all and,
in the process, take advantage of the momentum they would obtain to leave the solar system.
But during those trips, images and data from scientific instruments showed that
Europa had a much cleaner surface than expected, meaning that it didn't have many impact craters.
The only explanation for Europe's lack of impact craters was that some kind of geological activity
constantly renewed its surface, and this was something completely new since, until then,
no known artificial satellite showed geological activity.
These discoveries raised scientific curiosity about this satellite,
and thanks to observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, we discovered that Europa
had geysers of water gushing near the south pole. This finding significantly increased interest in
Europe as we had found water somewhere outside of Earth for the first time,
and it was within our solar system. The interest in exploring Europa increased,
and now the priority of exploration missions was no longer Jupiter. It became the moon Europa since
if there was water under this satellite's icy surface, we would likely find living beings.
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A very long journey Thanks to all the discoveries that were made
on Jupiter and its moons, NASA decided to send a new mission to explore not only Jupiter but also
its moons. This would be the mission currently studying this planet, the Junno exploration probe.
This spacecraft was launched in August 2011 and was supposed to arrive at Jupiter in July 2016.
But why did it take longer than the Voyager and Pioneer probes?
The reason is simple: weight. As we mentioned earlier,
the heavier a spacecraft weighs, the longer it will take to reach its destination. The reason for
this is the fuel that is used to propel them. All space probes carry some fuel to propel
themselves in the vacuum of space, but once they reach a certain speed,
the engines shut down so that they only continue to move forward, thanks to the initial boost.
In space, there is no friction; but there is a force that slows them down: the gravitational pull
of the Sun. That's why a lightweight spacecraft can fire engines at full power and accelerate
to overcome the Sun's gravitational pull. But, a heavier spacecraft will need more momentum,
translating into more fuel and heavier weight. Pioneer 10 and 11 probes weighed only 568 pounds
(258 kg), while Voyager 1 and 2 probes weighed 1620 pounds (735 kg) and 1796
pounds (815 kg) each. In comparison, the Junno probe weighs 7991 pounds (3625 kg).
As you can see, the Junno probe weighs much more than the Voyager and Pioneer probes combined;
for that reason, although the initial impulse of the Junno probe was more significant,
having a greater weight, it took much longer to reach Jupiter, taking approximately five years.
A human-crewed spacecraft would weigh at least ten times more than the Junno mission,
so travel time would also increase. With today's most powerful rockets,
a human-crewed spacecraft could not acquire a speed large enough to cover the distance between
Earth and Jupiter in less than five years. The most conservative estimate is that a
spacecraft at least three times larger than the Apollo spacecraft that took the
first astronauts to the Moon could cover the distance between Earth and Jupiter,
at best, in 8.5 years, just for the one-way trip. This means that a round trip would take 17 years,
something that is entirely unfeasible because to be in space for 17 years, astronauts would have
to carry a lot of supplies, food, water, and fuel, which would increase the weight of the spacecraft
even more, in turn increasing the travel time. The best-case scenario
As you can see, a trip to the Moon Europa would not be accessible with modern technology. To
undertake such a long journey, it would be best if astronauts could make brief stops at other places,
such as the Moon, Mars, and Ceres, the dwarf planet in the asteroid belt.
If, in a few years, we were able to establish bases on these celestial bodies that are halfway
between Earth and Jupiter, astronauts who undertake the journey to explore Europa could
make the trip in less time since they would not have to carry with them all the supplies
they will need for the trip, The spacecraft will be much lighter and will be able to travel faster.
Suppose that in the future, we manage to put a base on the Moon, on Mars, and another on Ceres,
with space bases always in orbit around these three bodies, with supplies such as food and
fuel for travelers heading to Jupiter's moons. In this scenario, if a spacecraft were to leave
Earthbound for Jupiter, it could only carry the resources to get to each base it encounters.
So once it arrives at the lunar space base, it will fill up with fuel to start the engines at
full power and get to Mars as quickly as possible; then, on Mars, it will refill the tank to give a
new boost that will take it at full speed to Ceres in the asteroid belt and once there it
will refill the fuel tank to give it the last push that will take it to Europe, Jupiter's Moon,
in a record time of just 1.5 years. It would be similar to a car that wants
to go around the world; it doesn't need to carry all the fuel it needs for the trip;
all it has to do is fill up the tank every time it arrives at a gas station.
Once in Europe, the astronauts could carry out their activities and stay there for a couple
of weeks, then return to the spacecraft and make the same journey, passing Ceres, Mars,
and the Moon to finally return to Earth, in a journey that will have lasted only three years.
Of course, there are a couple of problems with this hypothetical scenario. First,
there is no space base on any celestial body other than Earth, and we may have to
wait several decades to see something like this. The second problem is that for this plan to work,
the Moon, Mars, Ceres, and Jupiter must be aligned, which doesn't always happen.
The third problem is that even if this alignment occurs, which is perfectly possible, astronauts
could only take advantage of the alignment for the outward journey, not the return journey,
since by the time they reach Europa, the planets will no longer be aligned. So they
would have to stay in Europe until the line-up is re-established, which could take several years.
As you can see, getting to Europe is not an easy task. Our current technology does
not allow us to reach this Moon in a reasonable amount of time, and we do
not have space bases on other celestial bodies to help us boost the ships during the journey.
So, until we have all these facilities, we will probably have to wait many years to see the first
human-crewed mission to Europe. Did you think the trip to
Europe would be so complicated? Let us know what you think in the comments!