David W. Brown discusses NASA's Europa Clipper Mission
Most Americans have probably never heard of Europa, one of the small moons circling Jupiter. Thanks to data sent back by the Galileo satellite in the 1990s, we know that it has a large saltwater ocean bubbling with thermal activity underneath a miles-thick layer of ice. Since these are very much like the conditions that scientists believe led to the appearance of life on Earth, researchers have been yearning to undertake a closer investigation of Europa and Jupiter’s three other icy moons.
NASA's Europa Clipper is the most ambitious science project ever conceived. The mission is to investigate an icy moon of Jupiter to determine if it harbors conditions suitable for life! It’s set to launch in 2024.
In the meantime, author and acclaimed journalist David W. Brown has written an extraordinary book chronicling the journey of this mission thus far – a mission that may be our best shot yet at determining whether life exists anywhere else in our solar system.
Brown discusses his book, "The Mission," which reveals the amazing combination of passion, persistence, imagination, science, engineering, and political savvy that it takes to get a major space project off the ground.
