NASA Reveals New Probe for Searching for Alien Life

The $5 billion probe is currently at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and is due to blast off in October bound for Europa, one of the moons orbiting Jupiter. This moon could potentially offer conditions for life, a fundamental question that NASA is seeking to understand.

The mission’s project scientist, Bob Pappalardo, highlighted the significance of finding conditions for life or even life itself on Europa, as it would suggest the possibility of life in our solar system extending beyond Earth. The spacecraft is located in a sealed area at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to avoid contamination with Earthly microbes before its launch aboard a Space X Falcon Heavy rocket.

It is scheduled to begin a over-five-year journey and is expected to start a detailed study of Europa in 2031 with the help of various instruments that can penetrate ice and assess the presence of liquid water. While the mission is not specifically looking for life itself, it aims to identify the conditions that could support life.

Scientists believe that Europa’s conditions could potentially provide a habitat for life, offering the prospect that life might exist beyond Earth’s solar system. Despite its massive solar array, keeping the spacecraft powered will be a major challenge, especially as it approaches Jupiter, where the solar panels’ output reduces significantly.

The mission, which was planned in the late 1990s, is expected to conclude around 2034, after which the spacecraft will be disposed of by crashing into another body in the Jovian system, such as Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede.