Nuking Europa, Nukes and other 'futuristic' ideas for exploring Europa Options

[SergeyVLazarev]

Hi all! In my opinion, Europa explorer must be cheap and simple.

It must consist of 5 parts - 2 orbiters, 3 small and robust landers, and 3 nuclear and termonuclear bombs. I think that 10 Kt - 100 kt - 1 Mgt sequence is optimal.


First orbiter is robust, high protected from radioactivity, armed device. On high orbite over Europe
With simple and primitive long focused camera, laser-radar. It must to spectacle and record all nuclear explosion parametres.
has also a radio recever from landers.

second orbiter is orbiting low over the Europe. It must to fly over epicenter of nuke and drop lander to measure and see all.
To defend more complex second orbiter from radioactivity rays of nuclear explosion, we struck and explode a nuke in another side of Europe

Why nukes? Because it reveal all. First one, we"ll have a great quake of Europe. And can record all seismic infomation without landers.
next one. we can to melt ice and see a clear water - just hollow in the crust!!!

at 3 rd.

We dont need a special lander. If we can melt great hollow in crust - we'll have a liquid water to catch our lander! We dont need airbags, rockets. Just an robust "lander" like small susmarine!!

4 th. we ll have great cloud of water vapour and ice to take from there any chemical information.

[dvandorn]

I have to admit, my first reaction to using thermonuclear devices to punch holes in Europa's crust (thereby potentially harming any possible biota within their spheres of destruction) is... well... disgust.

Besides, liquid water wouldn't last for very long up against the vacuum of space that exists at the surface. An ice crust would develop awfully quickly -- you'd still need a way to punch through it with your submarine. Granted, it would be thinner than the natural crust, but it would still propose an obstacle.

Finally, the ice crust seems to be kilometers thick in most places. Just how deep of a hole you think you can dig with a nuclear weapon? Especially one that explodes above the surface? If you want maximum penetration from your nuclear hole, you'll need to bury the weapon about half as deep as the hole you want to make (the "hole" being a spherical void that would be vaporized by the blast and shock effects). That leads you back to ways of drilling or melting down into the crust to place your bomb.

All in all, while it's not the worst idea in the world, I think you'd need to work out all of these details before seriously proposing it...

-the other Doug