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Honestly, we should be focusing on Ganymede. It is also covered in ice with an ocean. Europa looks good but it is bombarded by direct radiation from Jupiter. E
by searine 8y ago
Honestly, we should be focusing on Ganymede.
It is also covered in ice with an ocean. Europa looks good but it is bombarded by direct radiation from Jupiter. Enceladus also looks good but it has really low gravity, and is farther from earth. Also, radiation again.
Ganymede has it's own magnetic field, to help bounce some of those ionizing particles, and is more distant from Jupiter. It's gravity is better than the moons.
Obviously I wish we could go to all three, but Ganymede is clearly the best choice imho.
- Florin_Andrei 8y ago> Europa looks good but it is bombarded by direct radiation from Jupiter. A few dozen meters below surface the radiation levels ought to be nil. And the surface is not interesting anyway.
- takk309 8y agoInstrumentation design for a probe that has to survive the radiation on the surface would be an awesome job. Given the weight budget, it could be a very hard engineering problem.
- greglindahl 8y agoAll of the probes that have gone to Jupiter have had that same hard engineering problem, and we've yet to lose much science because of it.
- wlesieutre 8y agoPartly radiation shielding, partly planning orbits to avoid it as much as possible. If you’re on a moon you don’t have the luxury of avoiding anything.
- Florin_Andrei 8y agoOTOH, if you're on a moon then you can use the moon itself as a shield. Just burrow below the surface. Most natural sources cannot penetrate more than a few meters (dozens of meters at most) through rock and/or ice.
- hooloovoo_zoo 8y agoThe liquid ocean of Ganymede is separated from the rocky core by a thick layer of ice which makes it less likely that there is the necessary chemistry to support life.
- dvh 8y agoEuropa is tidally locked so radiation on far side should be same as on Callisto