Journal articles

Joint Europa Mission (JEM) a multi-scale study of Europa to characterize its habitability and search for extant life

Michel Blanc ¹ Nicolas André ¹ Olga Prieto-Ballesteros ² Javier Gómez-Elvira ² Geraint D. Jones ³ Veerle Sterken ^{4, 5} William Desprats ^{6, 1} Leonid Gurvits ^{7, 8, 9} Krishan Khurana ¹⁰ Aljona Blöcker ¹¹ Renaud Broquet ¹² Emma Bunce ¹³ Cyril Cavel ¹² Gaël Choblet ¹⁴ Geoffrey Colins ¹⁵ Marcello Coradini ¹⁶ John Cooper ¹⁷ Dominic Dirkx ¹⁸ Dominique Fontaine ¹⁹ Philippe Garnier ¹ David Gaudin ⁶ Paul Hartogh ²⁰ Luciano Iess ²¹ Adrian Jäggi ²² Sascha Kempf ²³ Norbert Krupp ²⁰ Luisa M. Lara ²⁴ Jérémie Lasue ¹ Valéry Lainey ²⁵ François Leblanc ²⁶ Jean-Pierre Lebreton ²⁷ Andrea Longobardo ²⁸ Ralph Lorenz ²⁹ Philippe Martins ³⁰ Zita Martins ³¹ Adam Masters ³² David Mimoun ⁶ Ernesto Palumba ²⁸ Pascal Regnier ¹² Joachim Saur ³³ Adriaan Schutte ³⁴ Edward Sittler ¹⁷ Tilman Spohn ³⁵ Katrin Stephan ³⁵ Károly Szegő ³⁶ Federico Tosi ²⁸ Steve Vance ³⁷ Roland Wagner ³⁵ Tim van Hoolst ³⁸ Martin Volwerk ³⁹ Frances Westall ⁴⁰

1 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie

2 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]

3 MSSL - Mullard Space Science Laboratory

4 ETH Zürich - Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [Zürich]

5 Astronomical Institute [Bern]

6 ISAE-SUPAERO - Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace

7 JIVE ERIC - Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe

8 TU Delft - Technische Universiteit Delft

9 CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science

10 IGPP - Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics [Los Angeles]

11 KTH - Royal Institute of Technology [Stockholm]

12 Airbus Defence and Space

13 University of Leicester

14 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique [UMR 6112]

15 Wheaton College [Norton]

16 CSEO - Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation

17 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

18 TU Delft - Delft University of Technology

19 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas

20 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung

21 Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" = Sapienza University [Rome]

22 University of Bern

23 LASP - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder]

24 IAA - Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía

25 IMCCE - Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides

26 HELIOS - LATMOS

LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales

27 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace

28 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF

29 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]

30 Télécom ParisTech

31 ULISBOA - Universidade de Lisboa = University of Lisbon

32 Imperial College London

33 Universität zu Köln

34 SKA - Square Kilometre Array Organisation

35 DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt

36 Wigner Research Centre for Physics [Budapest]

37 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

38 ROB - Royal Observatory of Belgium [Brussels]

39 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences

40 CBM - Centre de biophysique moléculaire

Abstract : Europa is the closest and probably the most promising target to search for extant life in the Solar System, based on complementary evidence that it may fulfil the key criteria for habitability: the Galileo discovery of a sub-surface ocean; the many indications that the ice shell is active and may be partly permeable to transfer of chemical species, biomolecules and elementary forms of life; the identification of candidate thermal and chemical energy sources necessary to drive a metabolic activity near the ocean floor. In this article we are proposing that ESA collaborates with NASA to design and fly jointly an ambitious and exciting planetary mission, which we call the Joint Europa Mission (JEM), to reach two objectives: perform a full characterization of Europa's habitability with the capabilities of a Europa orbiter, and search for bio-signatures in the environment of Europa (surface, subsurface and exosphere) by the combination of an orbiter and a lander. JEM can build on the advanced understanding of this system which the missions preceding JEM will provide: Juno, JUICE and Europa Clipper, and on the Europa lander concept currently designed by NASA (Maize, report to OPAG, 2019).

Keywords : Habitability Outer planets exploration Search for life Jupiter system Ocean moon

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Sciences of the Universe [physics]

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Submitted on : Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - 9:23:57 AM
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