Yes, “on” it is the correct preposition. It’s not the continent I’m talking about; it is the Jupiter’s moon with the same name. Why so? Because NASA just got extra-money for its 2016 budget (of $18.5 billion dollars, i.e. half a million more, kindly requested by Obama for the space agency), which are going to fund what will be probably be called Europa Clipper mission. NASA has already done a concept study, and there are good chances the actual mission will be based on that.
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The whole idea is not to land on Europa, but to perform “a detailed investigation of Europa using a highly capable, radiation-tolerant spacecraft that would perform repeated close flybys of the icy moon from a long, looping orbit around Jupiter.” The number of flybys estimated by NASA is 45, at altitudes varying from 2700 km down to 25 km, in a tentative to achieve a sort of “global-regional coverage” of Europa, as well explained by Paul Gilster in this article about the mission.
NASA has started seeking proposals for science instruments that could be carried aboard a future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa since July 2014 and now, with the additional money committed, the mission is getting on the launchpad.
Why all this interest for this frozen moon? I have already discussed it with some details in another post. To keep it simple: exactly because it’s frozen. There are strong suspicions that under the crust of ice, there might be an ocean, with about two to three times more liquid water than on our planet. And with a temperature, telemetry suggested, still warm enough to sustain life. If there’s (alien) life in the Solar System, it might well be over there.
Did this whet your appetite for pretty Europa? If so, while we wait for some first-hand footage from Clipper – very much like the stunning Titan’s video from Cassini Huygens – have a go at this: