European Space Agency Invited To Contribute a Lander To NASA's Europa Clipper

MarkWhittington writes According to a story in Spaceflight Now, NASA has invited the European Space Agency to participate in its upcoming Europa Clipper project. Europa Clipper, pushed by Rep. John Culberson, the chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA, recently received backing from the Obama administration. Europa Clipper would launch in the early 2020s and would be placed in an orbit around Jupiter that would cause it to fly by Europa, a moon of Jupiter, at least 45 times during its operational life.

In Before

[Anonymous Coward]

Except Europa: Attempt No Landings There.

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

I strongly suspect she'd be a big fan of the Space: 1999 style unisex pantssuit [crazyabouttv.com].

Hillary Clinton's pantsuits through the ages [9news.com]

Can't Veto Stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad nobody has veto power over your abject fucking retardation...

Not surprising

[arth1]

Call me a cynic, but I would think this is less of reaching out a hand than trying to find ways to offset the costs.

Re:

[buchner.johannes]

I don't get why this article is on slashdot. Is it because the average reader might think ESA has not contributed to NASA missions before? Because it is the first time a lander may be the contribution? I don't think these are the case, NASA rarely does any mission without collaborations.

Re:

[chihowa]

It's a trap.

When Europe gets the blame for ATTEMPTING A LANDING, ALL THE REST OF THESE WORLDS ARE BELONG TO US ! ! !

Either that, or there's a loophole where it's ok for Europe to land on Europa.

Re:

[rtb61]

NASA is a fine tool with which to start repairing a severely damaged reputation and to draw attention away from the totally out of control US military industrial complex. A commercial dive into space is likely the only thing that could preserve elements of US lead economics. All other facets of that are evaporating as we speak under the harsh glare of exposed high level corruption.

Re:

[Tablizer]

Call me a cynic, but I would think this is less of reaching out a hand than trying to find ways to offset the costs.

Both seem good reasons to me. Why complain?

Note we did similar with the Galileo Saturn probe carrying the Huygens Titan lander.

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[websitebroke]

I think you mean Cassini-Huygens [wikipedia.org]? Galileo [wikipedia.org] was a Jupiter probe.

Re:

[Tablizer]

Thanks for correcting that.

Re:

[gstoddart]

So, basically the same as the F35 then?

Get a bunch of suckers to help pay for the development of your unicorn, so you don't have to pay for it all.

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[Convector]

The solar wind never gets anywhere near Jupiter's atmosphere. Jupiter has an absurdly strong magnetic field. The magnetopause is between 50 about 100 Jupiter radii from the planet, and the solar wind is deflected around it (Khurana et al., 2004) [ucla.edu]. The jovian aurorae are powered by currents entirely within the magnetosphere (Jupiter's rotation and Io's plasma).

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

NASA pulled out of ExoMars due to budget limitations and concerns that the budgeting for ExoMars was too tight with no allowances for overruns. The replacement, Mars 2020, launches in 2020, instead of two launches in 2016 and 2018, giving extra years to spread the costs over, and saving money by using spare parts from a previous mission, with the total cost including launch being about the same as NASA would have spent on ExoMars not including launch or operation costs. The ESA was already in talks and si

USA just wants ESA to do the dirty work!

[fantomas]

Hey, I've seen the movie, so it's true. USA wants to explore Europa - but to get ESA to do the dirty work and take the hit when the Europans get angry with the Europeans!

ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE