All articles tagged with #europa lander
NASA has canceled its Europa Lander project due to technical and budget challenges but is proposing to repurpose the robotic explorer for missions to Saturn's moon Enceladus, which offers a more favorable environment for exploration and potential signs of life.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed a robotic lander prototype designed for icy moon exploration, initially aimed at Europa but now proposed for Enceladus due to mission challenges, featuring autonomous walking, drilling, and radiation protection.
NASA is preparing for a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, with the Europa Clipper set to launch in October to assess the moon's potential for harboring life. A follow-up mission, the Europa Lander, is being developed to land on Europa's surface and collect samples from beneath the ice, searching for signs of life. The lander's unique spider-like landing gear is being tested at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and it will carry instruments to dig into the ice and conduct experiments. The Europa Clipper will precede the lander, arriving at Europa in 2030 after traveling hundreds of millions of miles.
NASA has tested a prototype of the Europa Lander, a proposed mission to land on Jupiter's moon Europa and examine its icy sheet and plumes for signs of life. The landing system combines elements from previous NASA missions and can be adapted for other celestial bodies with challenging terrain. The data obtained from the upcoming Europa Clipper and JUICE missions will inform the Europa Lander mission, which aims to analyze the moon's surface, monitor plume activity, and select landing sites and science objectives.