(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-01)
Rapoport, Samuel
Jupiter’s moon Europa, with internal energy from tidal heating and a global subsurface
saltwater ocean under a thick ice shell, presents incredible promise to the planetary science
community in the search for life and in our understanding of ocean worlds. Europa Clipper and a
Europa Lander would return valuable information on Europa’s environment, but the greatest
scientific returns require going beyond Europa’s surface and accessing the ocean underneath.
Penetrating Europa’s thick ice shell is a difficult technical challenge that is beyond the scope of
existing planetary science missions, thus a roadmap of how to get from today’s technology to a
successful Europa subsurface mission is required. Early and continuous investment must be made
to close these Significant Technology Gaps if we wish to realize a Europa subsurface mission in
the next two decades.
This report identifies Significant Technology Gaps for a Europa subsurface mission, giving
context around each technology as well as its application to Georgia Tech’s Vertical Entry Robot
for Navigating Europa (VERNE) vehicle. Technology needs, identifying where each technology
must advance, are explored and compared to the closest existing applications of the technology,
including the state of the art and current work in each field. Next steps for each technology, based
on the gap between the technology needs and the current work being done, are then
recommended. Topics explored include drilling technology, power and thermal systems, sample
handling, guidance navigation & control, and structures. This document can additionally be used
as a non-exhaustive literature review of these technologies limited to the scope of their
application to a Europa subsurface mission. If NASA invests in these critical technologies early
and consistently, a Europa melt probe could be selected as early as the decade 2033-2042.