With Europa Clipper, we're not searching for life on Europa, but we're trying to see if this ocean world is habitable, and that means we're looking for the water,
We're looking for energy sources, and we're really looking for the chemistry there, so that we can understand what habitable environments might be throughout our whole universe,
Ocean worlds like Europa are not only unique because they might be habitable, but they might be habitable today,
What a great day. We’re so excited,
Please say goodbye to Clipper on its way to Europa,
If we discover life so far away from the Sun, it would imply a separate origin of life to the Earth,
Much of the electronics are in a vault that's heavily shielded to keep out radiation,
We are searching for the potential for habitability, and you need four things—liquid water, a heat source, and organic material. Finally, those three ingredients need to be stable over a long enough period of time that something can happen,
There’s no profit being made. This is about exploration and curiosity, and pushing back the boundaries of our knowledge,
There is going to be something there - the
We'll definitely get the thickness of the ice crust and whether there are little ponds in there,
So, every six times that Europa goes around Jupiter, or every 21 days, we'll be in the exact spot in the universe to be right next to Europa,
We are looking for a habitable environment,
If we were to just go into orbit around Europa and study it, the radiation would likely kill off even the most radiation-hardened electronics within one to two months,
I've only actually been on this mission for 2½ years. I didn't start on it,
What we discover on Europa, ... will have profound implications for the study of astrobiology and how we view our place in the universe."
One of the Europa Clipper mission's main challenges is delivering a spacecraft hardy enough to withstand the pummeling of radiation from Jupiter but also sensitive enough to gather the measurements needed to investigate Europa's environment,
Scientists believe Europa has suitable conditions below its icy surface to support life. Its conditions are water, energy, chemistry and stability,
Just to emphasise: we're not a life-detection mission. We're just looking for the conditions for life."
We're going on a 1.8-billion-mile journey to an ocean world - Jupiter moon, Europa!"