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A comment on NASA spacecraft to probe possibility of life in Europa's salty ocean. Parent comment

Re:NASA spacecraft to probe possibility of life in Europa's ... by ceejayoz on Wednesday September 25, 2024 @10:08AM (#41647718)
> Where is all of this energy coming from?

A nuclear reactor, probably.

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Re:NASA spacecraft to probe possibility of life in Europa's ... by briansm on Wednesday September 25, 2024 @10:39AM (#41648066)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_heater_unit
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Re:NASA spacecraft to probe possibility of life in Europa's ... by safety1st on Wednesday September 25, 2024 @12:55PM (#41649408)
Really? To heat and melt sufficient ice around 25km of cabling? I don't know what temperature this ice is at, I think on the surface Europa averages around -300F, so it's probably at least that low. I guess a lot is going to depend on whether you're fine with the ice refreezing around the cable - if the ice shifts at all, the cable breaks. Keeping the whole thing heated continuously seems implausible
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Re:NASA spacecraft to probe possibility of life in Europa's ... by tagami on Wednesday September 25, 2024 @03:59PM (#41651254)
that would surely mess with any organics you might want to find
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Re:NASA spacecraft to probe possibility of life in Europa's ... by ceejayoz on Wednesday September 25, 2024 @07:06PM (#41652809)
No, not really. Water is very effective shielding, and you could melt a base station through the ice and do exploration with subs it sends out if you want fairly pristine samples. In the Jupiter system, it's also hardly the biggest radiation source around.
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