Just for fun - 30 minutes of probe data Options

[NickF]

Suppose you could have 30 minutes worth of robotic probe data from any object in the Solar System (either in orbit around it or from the surface). The technology used should not be significantly advanced from that in use today (no tachyon scanners). What target would you choose, and why?

I think my choice would have to be a mini-submarine in the sunless seas on Europa equipped with a video camera (and a suitably strong source of light), a hydrophone and a mass spectrometer. Imagine hearing the creak of the ice, catching a glimpse of something unexpected on the camera and MS data of unusually complex organic molecules.

Well I can dream, right?

[nprev]

I gotta go with 30 minutes of broadband data from a Europan submersible resting on the bottom of the postulated ocean near a vent, with every possible optical, IR, acoustical and chemical sensor that could be crammed onto the thing running at once.

What is--or isn't--down there is by far the most tantalizing mystery in the Solar System right now. That's the big brass ring for UMSF over the next few decades if not for the entire 21st Century, IMO.