The latest astronomy research dictates a revolvement around the exploration of Mars, but there’s hope for more, maybe something more exciting if you’re getting sick of hearing about that boring red planet. While it’s true that Mars is the closest planet to Earth which renders it a fair easy shake for choosing a topic of research, other possible endeavors are on the rise now: such as Jupiter!
That’s right. To make it even more exciting, though, is the fact that forces here on Earth–namely NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA)–are teaming up to embark on the most important mission to study Jupiter. No, they’re not going to land an unmanned spacecraft on the large gas giant of a planet as they’ve done on Mars; that would be astronomically dangerous as not much is yet known about Jupiter’s atmosphere.
The mission entitled the Europa Jupiter System Mission will be a long trip to provide orbiters around two of Jupiter’s moons: the Europa moon, and the Ganymede moon. These satellites will be designed to record probably the closest data on Jupiter ever known to man and will make room for more space exploration in the future, especially all the Jovian moons, which hold surprisingly unique characteristics that could suggest evidence of life.
As it stands, the mission is organized with NASA helming the control of their orbiter around Europa while the ESA will handle the Ganymede moon. Both will work together to achieve maximum results in findings on Jupiter given that the moons orbit the planet so closely.
By 2013, look for the Earth united to venture out into the unknown, exploring the other planets even closer than ever before. Humanity has obviously hit a milestone, thanks to the combined efforts of NASA and the ESA.