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

[Bob Shaw]

We *mustn't* nuke Europa.

The big oblong guys wouldn't like it, oh no.

All the rest of the worlds are ours, though...

Bob Shaw

[RNeuhaus]

IMHO, it is not necesarry to use nuke on Europe but, much better, it might be overcome with a well designed the layout of sesismic structure and points and using sophisticated seismic instruments with enough sensibility to percibe any land echos or vibrations.

On the other hand, the Moon is somewhat bigger than Europe Moon and the mission of Apollo has utilized several sesimic test without a nuke. Why do nuke instead of impact of penetrators to Europe?

I might be wrong with that and the nuke is okay if that it is the only ONE solution but without any harm to anything of the Europe moon.

Anyway, we must try the universe with the minimal harm or impact.

Using a brute force with a nuke is like a signal of pedrator.

Rodolfo

[mike]

Face it, nuclear explosions look really neat. All that stuff vaporized into nothing. It's what life is all about.

[ElkGroveDan]

Well I'm having a hoot reading this thread. As both a people watcher, and a wiseguy I find this highly entertaining.

I can imagine a comedy sketch where a bunch of sterotypical academic scientist types (taking themselves much too seriously) are standing around a Christmas party sipping eggnog and talking about planetary satellites as a guy walks in in a millitary uniform with a Russian accent suggesting that we nuke the moons of Jupiter. The Greenpeace guy falls over dead from the very thought, everyone starts shouting and grumbling and the Russian guy takes off his shoe and starts pounding on the table.

I could have a lot of fun with that one.

However since we are on the topic I could imagine in the not too distant future,.a nuclear powered ice-boring vehicle that heats itself up as it dives through the several miles of ice, unrealing a communications line as it goes.

[edstrick]

"Face it, nuclear explosions look really neat. All that stuff vaporized into nothing. It's what life is all about"

For them as don't know they exist: "Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie", and "Nukes in Space", plus others. Restored footage of atomic tests in the atmosphere and space, narrated (quite well) by William Shatner and with the musical soundtrack recorded by (boggle) The Moscow Philharmonic.

http://www.vce.com/trinity.html
(and go to the homepage for the other movies)

[Bill Harris]

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

No, no, no. We thought about doing that in the 1950's, '60's, '70's and '80's and that really bummed people out for 40 years, especially the Europeans. Nukes in Cuba in the 1960's lead to some weird times for us kids, too.

And a Bob Shaw notes, we don't need to annoy the monolith people.



Edstrick, thanks for that link to the a-bomb site. There is something compelling about bomb movies. "Those children" unleashed a horrible power.

--Bill

[ljk4-1]

IMHO, it is not necesarry to use nuke on Europe but, much better, it might be overcome with a well designed the layout of sesismic structure and points and using sophisticated seismic instruments with enough sensibility to percibe any land echos or vibrations.

On the other hand, the Moon is somewhat bigger than Europe Moon and the mission of Apollo has utilized several sesimic test without a nuke. Why do nuke instead of impact of penetrators to Europe?

I might be wrong with that and the nuke is okay if that it is the only ONE solution but without any harm to anything of the Europe moon.

Anyway, we must try the universe with the minimal harm or impact.

Using a brute force with a nuke is like a signal of pedrator.

Rodolfo

When you've got supernovae and hypernovae that can vaporize and sterilize many light years of a galaxy, do you really think a couple of our nukes are going to even be noticed by the wider Universe?

[tedstryk]

IMHO, it is not necesarry to use nuke on Europe but, much better, it might be ...

I am definitely against this one Europa is another story, but lets not nuke Europe.

[ugordan]

I am definitely against this one    Europa is another story, but lets not nuke Europe.

Agreed! Some of my best friends (including me!) are in Europe!

[RNeuhaus]

Sorry. Translate: Europe to Moon of Europe.

Rodolfo

[ugordan]

    Sorry. Translate: Europe to Moon of Europe. 

I didn't know we (the europeans) had a moon!

[RNeuhaus]

When you've got supernovae and hypernovae that can vaporize and sterilize many light years of a galaxy, do you really think a couple of our nukes are going to even be noticed by the wider Universe?

Opps, a much bigger depratator than a nuke, the supernovoa...or whatever else (GRB) However, I was thinking to take care to the "Moon of Europe" as our future colony.
| I realice that the Europe moon would not be habitable due to the high radiation coming from Jupiter.

Rodolfo

P.D. Re-edited "|"

[Omega]

Yeah, woo-hoo, nukes! EEEEERRRRRNNNNTTT!!!! [gameshow wrong-answer buzzer]


The best way possible to kill any lifeforms which might be there.

Think before you post.

[ljk4-1]

Yeah, woo-hoo, nukes!  EEEEERRRRRNNNNTTT!!!!  [gameshow wrong-answer buzzer]
The best way possible to kill any lifeforms which might be there.

Think before you post.

If Europan life can survive being on a moon which is constantly bathed in the very intense radiation from Jupiter, a few tiny nuke bombs from Earth aren't going to phase them much, certainly as a whole. And with 60 miles deep of an ocean girdling a globe the size of Earth's Moon, I doubt we could kill them all if we tried.

But just to clarify, I am not advocating nuking Europa on the grounds that it wouldn't do any real good in terms of opening up the ice crust to exploration of the ocean underneath. A well-aimed space rock, on the other hand....

[gndonald]

"Face it, nuclear explosions look really neat. All that stuff vaporized into nothing. It's what life is all about"

For them as don't know they exist:  "Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie", and "Nukes in Space", plus others.  Restored footage of atomic tests in the atmosphere and space, narrated (quite well) by William Shatner and with the musical soundtrack recorded by  (boggle) The Moscow Philharmonic.

http://www.vce.com/trinity.html
(and go to the homepage for the other movies)

Your quite right, the footage in "Trinity & Beyond" is quite spectacular, especially the bravura ending with the Chinese cavalry charging a mushroom cloud on horses in NBC suits.

But as for the idea of using nuclear charges to excavate Europa, forget it, simply exploding the charges on the surface would not excavate deep enough, you'd have to place the device in a shaft and then you would have to deal with the radiation contaminating the samples.

That was the problem that affected the 'Plowshare' gas stimulation experiments (see Peter Kurans Atomic Journeys:Welcome to Ground Zero).