I have previously discussed the presence of water throughout our solar system. If I were to choose one place to study related to water it would be a moon of Saturn, Enceladus. However, Saturn is three times as far away as Jupiter, so it is not surprising that NASA is more interested in the moons of Jupiter.
Last week, NASA launched the Europa Clipper, a mission to explore one of the moons of Jupiter, Europa. The research question is whether its underground ocean is habitable, and if it contains any forms of life as we know it.
Two problems to consider with regard to Europa are (1) the radiation belt around Jupiter. In some parts of the belt, the radiation is the equivalent of 100 million X-rays a day. It is a little less bad on Europa. Still, it is high enough that a human exposed to the radiation would become severely ill or die with a single day on the moon. (2) is the water potable? Water as we think of it is H2O, but even on Earth there are a lot of other elements in the water we drink. The water, assuming it is water below the surface, may be too toxic to drink even after purification. However, that does not mean some form of life could not develop in the mix if it is H20.
The liquid form of water on Europa is believed to be between 10 and 15 miles below the surface, so drilling may be problematic. However, much of the barrier to liquid water is ice, so the Europa Clipper should be able to get some valuable data even on the surface.
I found the following two articles about the Europa Clipper mission particularly interesting:
https://europa.nasa.gov/mission/about/
https://europa.nasa.gov/mission/science/
What do you think? Will they find some form of life on or in Europa?