We Choose to go to the Moon

"We choose to go to the Moon.  We choose to go to the Moon."
                       - President John F. Kennedy,  September 12th, 1962

Today, we choose to go to the moon, but not the same moon that we can easily discern in the sky.  We choose to go to Europa: a moon that orbits about the planet Jupiter.  I do not know about you folks, but this news makes my buttcheeks tingle.  This is exciting news.

Why is it exciting?

For one, someone in Congress is seeing that we have these lofty goals in space, we tend to thrive as a nation.  We innovate new technologies in order to solve the problems of space travel.  Those innovations have brought us advances in Health and Medicine, Transportation, Public Safety, Information Technology, and on and on.  We were once the nation at the top of these innovations and we have fallen far, far behind.  I am not saying that we have to be number one, but I think collaboratively with other countries that are way ahead of us, we will be able to do some rather amazing things.

I still get excited about launches and love to watch them.  I grew up making trips over to the east coast to see shuttle launches whenever it could be timed. Of course there were times we had to sadly turn back west after unforeseeable delays or cancellations.  But, the sensation of feeling the rumble of the rockets blasting those shuttles into space, is a memory in and of itself.  If you have not been close to the Cape for at least one launch, put it on your bucket list.  Trust me on this one.

Okay, okay, but why Europa?  It is another moon, just much further away.

Sit down for this one, as this is where the science gets really cool. Europa is covered with ice and under that ice is water.  Water.  The very essence of life (as we know it) in the universe.  (Sure, there is liquid methane on Titan - a moon of Saturn -  that could have a completely different type of life form swimming within its oceans, but we are talking water here.)  Can we mine it, can we reuse it, can we drill through it, can we drink the water below?  Many questions.  The trick is going to be finding a place to land that is near an air shaft or where the ice is thinner.  We are seven years from a targeted launch date, and it will be interesting to hear how it will all be done.

The next coolest item is that the gravity of Jupiter affects the tides and shifting of geological plates on the surface.  Sound familiar?  It is easily hypothesized that the gravity Jupiter is elongating the moon enough to create the necessary heat to keep the water on the moon a liquid.  You could follow the train of thought here to the fact that the moon could be habitable because it has water and is not too cold.  Of course, these are all theories, but that is why we are sending a lander there.  In fact, it is illegal to send only an orbiter to Europa, as Congress has mandated a lunar lander be part of the deal.

Usually, we search for planets that are within what is called the "Goldilocks Zone" where a planet is the right distance from a star and potentially has similar resources (water, air, cable television, washer/dryer hookups) to what we have here.  Europa is far, far outside that zone.  However, because of what the immensity of Jupiter does to the moon's surface by creating heat and tidal motion, the moon now has more potential than the planet Mars for hosting those brave enough to pioneer "the Final Frontier".  That is what is so cool about Astronomy and the possibilities that lie beyond our periphery.  

Finally, I find it rather auspicious that they make an announcement of the sort on the same day that the new Star Wars is released.

We choose to go the moon.  

We choose to go to Jupiter's moon.