Exploring Europa

I keep reading that there designs being made for rovers being sent to
Europa. Why do you need to have an ice melting lander? Couldn't you impact
a large object into Europa and hope it breaks through the ice layer?
Another option could be detonating hydrogen bombs on one specific area to
melt through the ice. After that was accomplished we could send down from
the orbiter, the ocean explorer rover.

Thanks,
Kelly

"Kelly Goode" writes:

I keep reading that there designs being made for rovers being sent to
Europa. Why do you need to have an ice melting lander? Couldn't you
impact a large object into Europa and hope it breaks through the ice
layer?

No, since the ice layer is likely to be _AT LEAST_ 3 to 4 kilometers thick,
and possible thicker --- so unless your "large object" is the size of a
small asteroid, it is rather unlikely to penetrate the ice. I do not expect
to see "Impacting large asteroids into Europa" as a line item in NASA's
or the ESA's budget any decade soon.


Another option could be detonating hydrogen bombs on one specific area
to melt through the ice. After that was accomplished we could send down
from the orbiter, the ocean explorer rover.

Notwithstanding the fact that your proposal would violate several
international arms-control treaties, it would be rather pointless,
since in addition to destroying a good bit of Europan real-estate,
it would also destroy many of the things one would like to study during
such a mission, such as the possibility of making measurements of the
structure and composition of the ice as the probe descends through it,
and any life that might _formerly_ have existed under the ice before
you blew it all to h*!! And again, the size of H-Bomb required to
penetrate 3--4 km of ice would be rather prohibitive.


-- Gordon D. Pusch

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