NASA has plans to send a cryptic human message to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
Last year, Nasa announced a campaign dubbed Message in a Bottle that will be sent to Jupiter’s planetary system via its Europa Clipper spacecraft.
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Message in a Bottle asked the general public to sign their names – now more than 2.6 million names have been etched into a microchip.
The chip, around the size of a dime, was created by technicians at the Microdevices Laboratory at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Alongside the microchip, Nasa is shipping a metal commemorative plate that measures 7 by 11 inches and features graphic elements on both sides.
At the heart of the plate is an engraving of the poem In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa, penned by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón.
“The content and design of Europa Clipper’s vault plate are swimming with meaning,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“The plate combines the best humanity has to offer across the universe – science, technology, education, art, and math,” Glaze added.
“The message of connection through water, essential for all forms of life as we know it, perfectly illustrates Earth’s tie to this mysterious ocean world we are setting out to explore.”
EUROPA CLIPPER MISSION
The message is expected to fly aboard Nasa’s Europa Clipper spacecraft sometime in October 2024.
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Europa Clipper will investigate the Galilean moon that circles Jupiter every 83 hours.
Clipper is about the size of an SUV and is scheduled to reach Europa around March 7, 2031.
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The mission, which has set Nasa back by $4.25 billion, will explore Europa’s terrain – from the ocean’s salinity levels to the chemical composition of its ice crust.
Searching for organic compounds like sulfates and carbonates is also on the agenda for the orbiter, which will perform repeated flybys of the icy moon.
“Clipper will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa and investigate whether the icy moon could have conditions suitable for life,” Nasa writes on its mission website.
Nasa believes that Europa is an ideal candidate for hosting alien life because it possesses the “ingredients essential for life: water, chemistry, and energy.”
The researchers predict that a salty ocean lies beneath Europa’s surface which contains more water “than Earth’s oceans combined.”
Project Scientist Robert Pappalardo of Nasa’s JBL in Southern California said: “It’s been a decades-long journey, and we can’t wait to see what Europa Clipper shows us at this water world.”
