News Planetary Science

Europa lander mission takes another step toward reality

Proposal looks at how to prevent probe’s contamination of the Jovian moon

icy surface of Europa

ONTO THE ICE  This image from the Galileo spacecraft shows the icy surface of Europa. The Jovian moon is a target for a potential lander mission that will look for signs of life there.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

By Ashley Yeager

- More than 2 years ago

BOSTON — For the first time since the Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s, NASA is making the search for evidence of life on another world the primary science goal of a space mission.