Europe tells US: 'Come to Europa'

[nickdw]

Eurpora is the moon with the frozen oceans and is geologically active, making it a likely candidate for thermophilic organisms living in the moon's deep seas: http://www.washington.edu/research/pathbreakers/1983c.html

Europe tells US: 'Come to Europa'
By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4347571.stm


The next big cooperative European-US space mission will be to Europa, the ice-crusted moon of Jupiter.

A joint working team is being set up to consider what sort of spacecraft would be needed and what each side could do.

Officials in Washington and Paris are keen to follow up the spectacular success of Cassini-Huygens at Saturn.

"It was a beautiful marriage and we really are looking to do a repeat," said Professor David Southwood, from the European Space Agency (Esa).

Southwood told the BBC News website that "Europe could do Europa on its own", but that a cooperative venture was extremely attractive.

Many scientists agree that Europa is now a high priority target for a major mission. . .