US Congress bombarded NASA with money

Europe through the eyes of the artist (source: NASA / ESA / K. Retherford / SWRI)

NASA at any given time develops several projects at once. One of them is an expedition to Europe, the satellite of Jupiter. There are various ways to ensure the fulfillment of the mission, and now a detailed plan for such an expedition is already being drawn up. At the same time, the US Congress decided to fully satisfy the financial needs of NASA, giving out with a generous hand more money (in some cases many times more) than requested.

Moreover, for many projects they gave more money than scientists originally requested. So, the requested budget only for the study of planets and their satellites will amount to more than $ 1.63 billion. About $ 175 million will be directed to the implementation of the project of flight to Europe. The implementation date is 2022.

The mission, according to the developers, will include an orbital station and a descent module with a large number of sensors and detectors. The mission has already been approved by Congress in general terms, so now it’s just not enough to go down to the surface of Europe.

Interestingly, NASA's total budget for 2016 is $ 19.2 billion. This is $ 700 million more than what US President Barack Obama requested. According to one congressman, this year Congress expressed its deepest confidence in the agency, increasing NASA funding. The agency previously requested about $ 30 million to finance the "European" mission. As you can see, Congress approved a budget that is 6 times higher than the original figure.

Now that the budget is approved, NASA has to think not only about the orbital station for Europe, but also about the descent module, which will explore the surface of the satellite of the giant planet. Moreover, scientists are not too happy with the expansion of plans.

“We, the scientific community, believe that the first mission should provide for the fulfillment of a small number of goals. For example, it could be sending an orbital station to Europe, which will help determine the potential landing point for the descent module. And then we can send this module there, ”says one of the participants in the mission.

“Therefore, we do not agree with congressmen who want to complete a multi-billion dollar project with sending a descent vehicle to Europe. We think this is a rash decision, ”he continues.

EarlierThe research project for Europe included the following key points:
The cost of the expedition should not exceed $ 1 billion. This should include all equipment, all technological and scientific tools. That is, you need to think about how you can organize an expedition, from scratch, for 1 billion dollars.

In addition, the expedition had five main tasks:

• determination of the size of the oceans of Europe;
• determination of the influence of the oceans on the processes of relief formation and, in general, the “life” of this satellite;
• determination of the composition of the oceans;
• create a map of the surface of Europe, with maximum resolution;
• to study the atmosphere and magnetosphere of Europe.

Now, as we see, additional tasks were added, including the landing of the device on the surface. True, one does not interfere with the other - the goals are only complemented. By the way, since Europe can have its own life, all devices and equipment that come from Earth must be sterile. The transfer of life forms from the Earth to Europe is not allowed, this may be a disaster for the ecosystem, which may exist on the satellite of Jupiter.


Photograph of Europe by Galileo Probe (NASA)

Nevertheless, the congressmen, according to them, did not make a decision just like that. Long before the decision was made to increase the budget of the mission and expand it, congressmen met with members of the team that made the Curiosity rover landing. These scientists believe that landing on Europe is possible the first time, you only need to first carefully examine the surface of the satellite using an orbital station, and then send the lander from orbit to the intended region.

Whatever it was, but NASA now needs to comply with the congressmen’s prescriptions, not a bit without deviating from the plans.