Europa Orbiter
The (Europa Orbiter)
mission is part of NASA's Ice and Fire projects. This mission will
send a spacecraft to Europa to measure the surface ice thickness and
attempt to detect an underlying liquid ocean and measure its depth.
The mission would also study surface and interior processes to
determine the energy sources and response of the crust.
Mission Timeline
- FY 98 - Preproject funding
- 2002-2003 - Possible launch
IRTF Mission Support
- Measurement of thermal inertia and disk integrated thermal properties
This will tie the heating and cooling curves to the Galileo observations.
- The IRTF will be used to look for endogenic hot spots
Click here to return to the NASA / IRTF
Mission support homepage.
Last modified: Mar 28, 1998