"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

In article ,
says...

On Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 12:38:02 PM UTC-4,
wrote:
"NASA has confirmed a mission to Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter,
will indeed
happen. The mission was initially explored starting in 2017, with the
space agency
looking for reports on how it might proceed, and now NASA has said it
will go
ahead and move to the key step of finalizing mission design, which will
then lead
to actually building the spacecraft that will make the trip, and the
science
payload it?ll carry on board.

The goal of the mission, which is codenamed ?Europa Clipper,? is to
find out
whether the icy natural satellite orbiting Jupiter could sustain life,
and also
explore whether it might be colonizable or habitable. Plus, we?ll
definitely learn
a lot more about Europa with an up-close-and-personal exploration."

See:

https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/20/na...ts-icy-oceans/

Says nothing about landing or drilling.

"NASA?s goal for this mission is to launch as early as 2023, though it?ll
need its SLS launch system to be ready to make that happen. The extended
timeline allows for a launch-ready state by 2025, which seems a bit more
realistic given the current state of affairs."

So a rocket in the Saturn V size class is needed for this mission?

A Falcon Heavy with an added solid kick stage could do the job, but it
would take longer to get there and require flybys. A Delta IV Heavy
with a solid kick stage could do it as well, but I'm not sure ULA could
produce anymore Delta IV Heavies.

Or wait until SpaceX/NASA perfects in-space refueling and refuel a Falcon 9
upper stage or two.
Sure it'll take time and development, but I'd bet would still be cheaper and
faster than SLS!



Jeff

--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net
IT Disaster Response -
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