[FPSPACE] A Submarine for Europa

[LARRY KLAES]

A Submarine for Europa

Many planetary scientists believe that Jupiter’s moon Europa is our solar 
system’s best contender to share Earth’s distinction of harboring life. 
Evidence gathered by the Voyager and Galileo spacecrafts suggests Europa 
contains a deep, possibly warm ocean of salty water under an outer shell of 
fissured ice. In a paper published in the July 2007 Journal of Aerospace 
Engineering a British mechanical engineer proposes sending a submarine to 
explore Europa’s oceans.

Carl T. F. Ross, a professor at the University of Portsmouth in England 
offers an abstract design of an underwater craft built of a metal matrix 
composite. He also provides suggestions for suitable power supplies, 
communication techniques and propulsion systems for such a vessel in his 
paper, “Conceptual Design of a Submarine to Explore Europa’s Oceans.”

Full article here:

http://www.universetoday.com/2007/08/29/a-submarine-for-europa/