I have previously talked about water in the solar system. Today CNN posted an article about a current NASA mission checking out Europa for signs of life. Why? Water for one. It also has the right combination of water, energy and chemistry to support life as we know it.
What kind of life are we looking for? For NASA it is any signs of life. If we are looking at the microbial level that is both exciting and scary. Could microbes from another world, developed in a totally different environment potentially create diseases by inadvertently bringing the microbes back to Earth? Or could they potentially provide new insights into extending length and quality of life on Earth. That seems to be a throw of the dice.
Could we inhabit a moon of Jupiter? Drinking salt water from the ocean is not life sustaining. But can desalination occur and work? Yes. So even if the “water” in Europa is not potable, it probably can be made so. A bigger concern might be the radiation belt that Europa sits in. This is creating a challenge for the NASA exploration team with components of the mission vehicle. If we established a base on Europa would it have even more radiation problems to deal with than establishing a base on our own Moon?
If you are interested in colonization outside of Earth and in the Solar System, this article is a good read. The link is:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/europa-clipper-set-launch-soon-021213229.html