New Jupiter-Europa Mission: Call it 'Clarke'?

February 19, 2009

No sooner does Discovery Space put up a Wide Angle pondering a mission to Jupiter's ice-encrusted Europa, then the U.S. and European space agencies say,
"Baby, you're as cold as ice -- and covered in ice -- but we're going to fly out 780 million miles to meet you."

I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

Check out the European Space Agency's (ESA) release here, and NASA's release here (Emily Lackdawalla of the Planetary Society Blog seems to have put the first post up about this, so a hat tip to her).

Now, Europa did have some stiff (or should I say muddy?) competition: Saturn's chilly moon Titan. Scientists put up a fight for robotic visitation rights, and they still won -- Titan is on the roadmap for a future mission.

I think the reason Titan came in at #2 is because we already dropped a probe onto its soupy, organic surface -- the Huygens probe, for all of you non-space nerds -- which is why I think it's high-time we give Europa a peek.

Looking for background? Roll through this package we put together for you last week:

• In this video, James Williams does a great job summing up why Europa is such a cool place to visit. Bonus: he says "farts."
• Hubble news director and Discovery Channel blogger Ray Villard has a nice summary up about how a Europan mission might look.
• Irene Klotz writes about the ins/outs of missions to Titan and Europa at Discovery News.
• Don't know your Jovian moons? From Adrastea and Amalthea to Callisto and Themisto, browse this slide show.
• I chatted online with a Galileo imaging scientist about Europa (and Enceladus) -- dive into that here.

NASA and ESA are still in the super-early planning stage, seeing as they won't wheel out Jupiter-bound spacecraft to the launch pads until about 2020.

For now, the orbiting robot they'll send to Europa (perhaps with a probe on it?) will be titled the Europa Jupiter System Mission, or EJSM.

Now, I grew up reading sci-fi novels by Arthur C. Clarke, and I firmly believe we should name EJSM after him. Why?

Clarke pondered the idea of Europa being a habitable world in his novels, e.g. creatures emerging from the icy depths of Europa to the surface. His fictional vision certainly inspired me, and it's safe to say that he also inspired many of the scientists who will work on the EJSM mission.

When I professed my excitement about the new Europa mission on Twitter, QuarkSpin shot this back at me:

"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE."

RevAaron replied:

"You know we have the greatest enthusiasm for the mission, Dave. No, we won't open the pod bay doors"

 That cracked me up because I'm a Clarke fan, but in all seriousness it goes to show how Clarke's work is etched into our brains.

We agreed that EJSM should be renamed "Clarke"... What do you think?

(And here's another thought: If I remember correctly, Tom Hanks once pitched doing movies for the rest of Clarke's Space Odyssey series. He was turned down, of course, but could the timing be ripe now to revive that idea? Hmm...)

Photos, top to bottom: ESA/NASA;Wikipedia/Mamyjomarash

Comments

[شات]

nice
thanks

[OM]

...Sir Art deserves the honor. And what better way to do so than to name the probe after the guy who *really* came up with the "Wet Europa" theory and not the "Face on Mars" scammer who *claims* he came up with it. Then again, who'd name a probe after Richard Hoagland in the first place?

[RevAaron]

Definitely! Clarke is still my all-time favorite author, and has been hugely influential. I'm sure there will be lots of future ships named Clarke, why not start now?

I just hope this won't doom the craft to being eaten by a tentacled monster from under the Europan ice :) (Yes, I know it's an orbiter, not a lander)