Astronomers want to blast Jupiter’s moon Europa with massive bullets

According to 2010: Odyssey Two, Arthur C. Clarke's sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, whoever or whatever caused Jupiter to turn into a new star told us to 'attempt no landing' on Jupiter's moon, Europa. A team of British astronomers have come up with a novel alternative, though, as they plan on firing one or more massive bullets at the icy moon sometime in the next decade or so.

The 20-kilogram steel bullet, which the scientists have named 'the penetrator', just completed a test last week, when it hit a 10-tonne block of ice while traveling at over 1,200 km/h (roughly the speed of sound):

According to the BBC News article, the penetrator pulled 24,000 g when it stopped (or 24,000 times the force of gravity that we feel while standing on the ground at sea-level). They compared that to the force on a fighter pilot ejecting from their jet, which is typically about 12-14 g. Even with all that force on the penetrator and the instruments inside, everything held together.

"Penetrators offer a number of advantages over 'soft landers', which have to slow down to reach the surface safely," said Sanjay Vijendran, who is heading up the project for the European Space Agency (ESA), according to BBC News.

"They would enable you to get deep into the sub-surface essentially for free, up to three metres without having to drill. And being light means you can deploy a few at once from a single spacecraft orbiter."

When the project is complete, these penetrators will likely have sensors on-board to measure tremors in the ice, as well as a miniature chemistry lab to sample and study the ice. Since they're relatively light-weight, any satellite that carried this mission to Europa could probably carry more than one, allowing the scientists to fire at, and thus study, several parts of the moon's surface at once.

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Now, Clarke's novels are fiction, of course. Besides, it's 2013 and Jupiter is still just a massive gas-giant planet, so, even if his story was true, the clock has run out on us receiving that warning. So, I think we're in the clear for heading to Europa whenever we can, to see what we can find there, and possibly even discover life.

These 'penetrators' certainly have their advantages, as the scientists point out, but I have to say — even if I'm not being entirely serious — is it really a good idea to go firing massive projectiles at another planetary body that might actually have life on it?

It's likely that if anything is living on Europa it's going to be far under the icy surface. If it's actually developed enough to be something that can think and reason like (or similar to) the way we can, the most that it's likely to get from these impacts is the equivalent of someone 'knocking on the door' (the ice is likely 10s of kilometres thick)

Personally, after the disappointment of hearing that NASA won't be headed to Europa, I'm just glad that someone is planning on going there soon. Even so, though, what kind of first impression does this mission make?

(Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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