Colonization of Europa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (November 2006)

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2008)

Space colonization

Outer solar system

This box: view • talk • edit

Europa, the fourth-largest moon of the gas giant Jupiter, is a subject in both science fiction and scientific speculation for future human colonization. Europa's geophysical features, including a possible subglacial water ocean, make it a strong possibility that human life could be sustained on or beneath the surface.

1 Colonization Projects
2 Possible Problems
- 2.1 Colonization of Europa in fiction
3 References

[edit] Colonization Projects

The Artemis Project designed a plan to colonize Europa in 1997.^[1]^[2] According to the plan, scientists are to inhabit igloos and drill down into the Europan ice crust, exploring the subsurface ocean believed to exist underneath. The plan also discusses use of artificial air pockets for human inhabitation. According to the plan, a possible Europan surface base would make use of inflatable structures. Exploration of Europa and its subglacial ocean would be carried out with specialized submarines.^[3]

[edit] Possible Problems

There are numerous difficulties related to the colonization of Europa; one significant problem is a high level of radiation from Jupiter's radiation belt, which is approximately 10 times as strong as Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. A human being would not survive at or near the surface of Europa for long without significant radiation shielding. Another problem is that the surface temperature of Europa normally rests at minus 170 degrees Celsius (103 kelvins). Colonists on Europa would have to descend to and ascend from the surface relatively quickly (though not while Europa is passing through Jupiter's magnetotail), and stay in habitats buried under the surface while there.

It is also speculated that alien organisms may exist on Europa, possibly in an aquatic form in the subglacial ocean.^[4]^[5] If this is so, human colonists could well come into conflict with them - if there is an intelligent species living on Europa, though this is thought to be extremely unlikely, they may react unfavorably to human interference, and even if they are unintelligent, they may still be dangerous, e.g. if they are harmful microbes. Even if life on Europa is found to be benign, human colonization raises ethical questions of ecocide and first contact procedure. There is also the possibility that Human exploration and habitation could cause accidental contamination of any alien habitat on Europa.