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comment by Dala
Dala  ·  1834 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Water vapor confirmed on Europa

    Hubski's server is named Europa

Nice - does that mean we're all Europans now?

I want to nit-pick this press release so bad because it makes it sound like the Clipper is going to orbit Europa directly, however I am too busy being fascinated by the dangled bait of the "potential future lander" to be too mad. But I'm wondering now, if you took, say, Curiosity, and put it on Europa, how long it would function in the environment? What would have to be done differently? Radiation shielding? A way to keep heat in/generate heat? If our lander, which needs heat to stay "alive," sat in one place too long on the surface, would it melt itself into the ice? How long would we have to collect and work on a sample before the equipment succumbed to the environment?