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It's kind of surprising there is no mission to Europa in any form of advanced planning, the idea certainly seems to have been around for a long time. You would
by robryan 16y ago
It's kind of surprising there is no mission to Europa in any form of advanced planning, the idea certainly seems to have been around for a long time.
You would imagine to that there would be much to learn from Cassini like missions to Uranus and Neptune.
- hugh3 16y agoThere have been a couple of Europa missions which got cancelled in the planning stages, which is why we don't have one in the works right now. Europa missions have a habit of getting extremely elaborate and expensive and then getting cancelled. We'll get there eventually. In the meantime, the big (and very expensive) mission in the works which the grandparent didn't mention is the Titan Saturn System Mission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Saturn_System_Mission http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Saturn_System_Mission which is currently planned to have a Titan orbiter, a Titan lake lander, and a Titan hot air balloon. If this one launches in its planned form it's going to be impressive. Mind you, it's not due to launch 'til 2020 and it's got a nine-year flight to Saturn, so don't hold your breath either way.