3011: Europa Clipper

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Europa Clipper

Title text: They had BETTER make this a sample return mission.

Explanation

The Europa Clipper's projected course around Jupiter, represented as the stationary green dot. In gold is Jupiter's moon Callisto, in cyan is the moon Europa — the primary target of the spacecraft's study — and in orange-red is the innermost of Jupiter's four "Galilean" moons, Io. The spacecraft's track is shown in magenta. Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede is not shown, but its gravitational pull affects the Clipper's trajectory. A mission goal is to achieve a 6:1 orbital resonance with Europa by September 2034.

The Europa Clipper space probe was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024. It is expected to arrive at Jupiter and begin exploration of Jupiter's moons, particularly Europa, in April of 2030. 

Europa is an icy moon. Water ice covers its surface. Around 15 to 25 kilometers (10 to 15 miles) beneath the ice, there is expected to be liquid water which may contain some basic forms of life. To sample this liquid, its icy crust would need to be breached. The thickness of the ice dwarfs the Europa Clipper's 31 meter span.

Europa's surface of ice over liquid water could be loosely compared to the caramelized crust on the popular dessert crème brûlée—a comparison that may have been prompted because the Cassini-Huygens probe, after landing on Saturn's moon Titan in January of 2005, found that its surface had what was described as a "crème brûlée" consistency. The hard surface of the caramel cream dessert is traditionally cracked open with a spoon, so Randall jokes that such equipment will be deployed by the Europa Clipper.

In truth, no such spoon is present on the probe, and Europa's icy crust is too thick to be penetrated by a spoon of such size. Advanced measures are needed to prevent contamination of liquid water by Earth's organisms such as tardigrades, deinococcus radiodurans, or bacillus subtilis. The Europa Clipper's course has been charted to avoid any contact with the surface of Europa (although it will fly through some sparse material it ejects into space) so as to prevent contamination by microorganisms from Earth.

The successful deployment of any spacecraft's instrument is considered a cause for celebration because deployable spacecraft instruments often fail to correctly extend, unfurl or undock. The Clipper has a magnetometer that will be used at the end of a 8.5 meter boom (not apparent in the comic which, spoon extension aside, is an otherwise fairly accurate depiction) as part of its study of the moons' environment.

Europa

Crème brûlée

The Europa Clipper spacecraft

The title text expands on the joke by stating that the spacecraft "had BETTER" return samples of Europa to Earth. However, the Europa Clipper is not a sample-return mission, and if it were, such samples are unlikely to be good to eat.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[A space probe with two rectangular solar panels, a circular dish of the front, and a very large spoon extending beneath, longer than the span of both solar panels]

[Below the panel:]

Good news: NASA's Europa Clipper is en route to Europa and has successfully deployed its crème brûlée spoon.

Trivia

Initially, the Europa Clipper mission was planned to include a lander component, but it was removed from the project early on. The Europa Lander proposal lags significantly behind the Clipper in development and has not secured funding. An actual sample return mission is currently far into the future of the pertinent plans for exploration.

In Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2010: Odyssey Two, the monolith aliens tell humanity "All these worlds are yours — except Europa. Attempt no landing there." Contrary to the suggestion of the comic, no landing or any other physical interaction beyond observation of the surface and analysis of the ejecta of Europa is planned.

In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess whom Zeus, the king of the gods, abducted after transforming himself into a bull. The name of the continent Europe may derive from this legend, though alternative theories suggest it originates from ancient Greek words meaning "wide-gazing" or "broad face." Additionally, there is an Oceanid named Europa (with a sister named Asia), one of the many daughters of the Titans, Oceanus and Tethys. The name Europa is also used in other mythological and geographical contexts. Jupiter's moon Europa was named after the Phoenician princess, following the tradition of naming Jovian moons after Zeus's lovers.

Diacritics are previously featured in comic 1647: Diacritics and 2619: Crêpe.

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Discussion

I'm not brave enough to actually add an explanation myself, quite yet, but ... I guess this is a reference to the fact(?) that Europa looks a bit like a creme brulee', when viewed from space? https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/moons/europa/ It does look tasty ... :) ModelD (talk) 12:53, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

I suspect it's more due to the need to drill through a couple miles of ice to get to the ocean; much like breaking through the sugar crust on a creme broule! Seebert (talk) 13:16, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you to the people at 9AM Post things on another website to try and explain XKCD Comics. -Forgotten_Mail 172.69.33.177 (talk) 13:30, 13 November 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The comically large spoon!!!!!!!!!! I love those. -P?sych??otic?pot??at???o (talk) 16:38, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Don't be sucked in! Protect yourself! https://rathergood.com/2017/02/10/spoonguard/ 141.101.99.105 10:57, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

I think the "Crème brûlée is from France, France is in Europe, the moon is called Europa" connection is a bit of a stretch...? Yorkshire Pudding (talk) 18:36, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Eh, it's the same etymology. --172.69.134.230 11:04, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

The issue of the continent and the moon coming from the same classical source (for different reasons) rather stretches the link between the dish (from the country, from the country's region/continent, from the region of Greece, possibly from the pantheon) and the moon (directly from the pantheon). I agree with the 'stretch' assessment. You can probably find easier and more plausible (but wrong) links worth alluding to than that, which relies upon several steps and a possible polysemic pair of original links. 172.70.58.45 12:12, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

From an American perspective, Europe might seem like a distant, mysterious place that you might want to send a probe to to gather interesting information, and also somewhere that crème brûlée comes from. It's also potentially confusable (by the easily confused) with Europa. That seems like a reasonable enough connection to make to me. The mention of France is essentially by the by.172.71.26.107 12:23, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

The part of the explanation about how brûlée is from France, and France is in Europe, has gone now, so my comment on that now has no obvious provocation! That's what prompted it though. Yorkshire Pudding (talk) 10:52, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

Yes - but it could have just said 'crème brûlée comes from Europe, which sounds quite like Europa' - the France bit was a red herring.172.68.186.25 13:19, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

It keeps getting said that "Europa is named after Europe", which is not correct (etymology, BTW, not entomology). I shall have to re-restore some other changes made to the same paragraph in rapid succession whilst I was trying to explain this. Bear with me. 172.70.160.195 14:57, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

...You don't care, do you. You just keep putting it back in. SMH. Have fun. Someone else will probably be along to correct you again later. 141.101.68.92 15:35, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

"only a spoonful" moment 💔 Caliban (talk) 19:20, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Someone should add a reference to XKCD's previous mention of a Planetary Protection Officer: https://what-if.xkcd.com/117/ 162.158.42.221 00:09, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

JUICE mentioned!!! cracker ham cheese cracker ham cheese cracker N-eh (talk) 07:31, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Edited out, alas. It's a fascinating, and entertaining, experience to set up a starter explanation and then watch it bubble and froth. As with the crème | France | Europe | Europa trajectory (in which I had no part after posting the starter). 108.162.245.113 18:46, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Surely crème brulée is a dessert, not a starter?172.70.162.69 09:41, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Here is a list from NASA about spacecraft instrument deployment failures, they are remarkably frequent: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20210020397/downloads/Alphonzo%20Stewart-%20Final%20Paper.pdf 162.158.19.50 13:00, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

I think we need to have a conversation about how the insertion orbit plan is so chaotic that there is a significant chance that the probe might crash in to and pierce the crust of Europa. 162.158.187.56 14:36, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

...and if so, what's the likelihood of hitting just the right angle to scrape off a tasty bit with that spoon? Transgalactic (talk) 16:04, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

What would you like it to be? I can't step on butterflies, but I can certainly act according to the purest form of free will by strapping a noise bridge diode to my corpus callosum. 108.162.246.83 16:17, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Well we just need Elon to lock in the plan that if it crashes then it automatically becomes a sample return mission, and the first SolarCity sales rep to break out +150% of their quota gets to be the one to crash it. 162.158.42.130 15:56, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

What part of "Attempt No Landing There" is unclear to you? Liv2splain (talk) 18:36, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

In all seriousness, the liquid water is a good reason to be extremely careful so you don't end up detecting tardigrades, deinococcus radiodurans, or bacillus subtilis. 172.70.214.166 19:16, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

I can not believe I got ChatGPT to make this for me:

172.68.23.82 "This bull is kind of weirdly friendly and actually pretty cool" 16:03, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

"Europa was this smart, ambitious woman...." She was a nepo baby. 172.70.206.231 18:55, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

ChatGPT should have learned long ago that it's not cool to reproduce rape culture. But I guess AI just doesn't get better than its training material... Transgalactic (talk) 16:34, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

It is apparently aware of the issue:

"The myth of Zeus and Europa is problematic from a modern perspective, especially concerning consent. Europa willingly approaches and even climbs onto Zeus, who is disguised as a bull, suggesting an initial level of curiosity and comfort. However, Zeus’s sudden abduction of Europa—taking her across the sea to Crete and revealing his true identity only after they arrive—shows a disregard for her autonomy, as she never consented to go with him under those terms. Her actions are based on Zeus’s deception, and without knowing his true intentions, her choice was not fully informed. In Greek mythology, such abductions were common symbols of divine intervention, reflecting a worldview where gods often overpowered human agency, a stark contrast to today’s emphasis on consent and personal autonomy."

The issue with Zeus's behavior was tempered by the story that he gave Europa a kingdom to rule and all the riches and luxuries that came with it. Isn't that the way bad boyfriends are excused in our day and age? 172.70.211.143 17:45, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Like King Tyrannis in Krapopolis? All that glitters is not gold. 172.68.22.93 18:02, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

It's not aware of anything (yet).162.158.33.214 09:45, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Given how it's likely not Zeus's momentary crush, that was the Europa concerned (naming the river, region then contintent), all that ChatGPT stuff is interesting but very likely going down totally the wrong trail of ideas. Of course, the phylomemetic development of legends is probably very mixed up, and trying to trace what figures certain phonemes originally refered to (before being cooked and remixed in countless oral 'history' retellings with few written standard versions to keep them static and consistant) is an art in itself. 172.71.26.42 19:31, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

The Greek myths were handed down in writing and by the oral tradition. They are absolutely diverse but the common threads are a large part of what an entire middle age of clerical monks have bestowed upon Western culture. In that tradition, Europa kept her gift kingdom instead of returning home, which suggests some measure of consent after the fact. If you were given a huge island kingdom because some god-bull decided to take you for a surprise swim, would you refuse it? 172.70.211.129 19:33, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Since more 'modern' times (to speak of monks, you'd generally be talking about mediæval times onwards, though some priests and scholars of pre-christianity eras may have played some similar roles beforehand), they may have been 'well' documented, but we're talking about bronze-age-and-earlier (mostly) oral traditions that bumbled along for a long time with few persisting writings/engravings. Imagine what ancient records were lost in Alexandria/other destructions, or sat upon stone/clay that has since lain undiscovered for cdnturies but likely crumbled well beyond the ability of any lucky archaeologist to reconstruct.

And not all of the various women/beings of that name could have been just retellings of the same 'original' (with deviations). Zeus's Europa likely, in fact, far post-dates the examples rooted in the pre-Olympian pantheon. Either in 'actual legend' or in the tales that developed to explain the current understanding of the soap-opera that was what gods/titans/whatever had performed to get from the creation of the world to 'now'. 172.69.43.183 19:52, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

I suggest that scholars of Christianity may not have as accurate of a take on the Greek myths as agnostic scholars of the Greek classical works and recorded traditions.[1] 162.158.186.253 20:09, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

P.I.S.S.s are only as good as the information they scrape. -P?sych??otic?pot??at???o (talk) 21:32, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

My spoon is too big! https://youtu.be/PONvX6LmAPo?si=u4iIjQLEplVZf-Xq Foobarbecue (talk) 21:19, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

why is there a whole Convo about chatgpt and the europa myth? it isn't even relavent to the article 172.69.70.68 13:37, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Look at the Trivia section. -P?sych??otic?pot??at???o (talk) 13:41, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Also, the myth of Europa is literally where the name of the moon came from. -P?sych??otic?pot??at???o (talk) 15:50, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Someone kept saying that the moon, Europa, was named after the continent, Europe. (And even, by some readings, that the probe was named after the continent rather than the moon!) Inarguably, the moon was named after the 'lover' (more an abductee, at best a manipulated victim of a divine catfishing incident!) of Zeus, because that was the conscious theme of the various moons being named. However given the various Europas in myth, other than the mortal one that Zeus did the whole bull thing with, and the obvious links to the river-defined territory (either rooted in the name given to its river-nymph, primarily, or the initial 'wide expanse' description in PIE lending that river/territory and its associated nymph its name), I think that people are getting their legends mixed up and getting any links between the names long.

And all because there was some weird idea that a dessert invented in France was an 'obvious' connection to the jovian moon by a (it tirns out) very convoluted etymological path, rather than just making a more generic physical analogy between the dish and the consistency of the surface ice. (I would have said a badly re-frozen sorbet, anyway, if I didn't know of the analogous description as applied to the actual surface of Titan. More in line with the chemical makeup, etc.)

Note that estimates go from around 3km thickness of ice to 30km or more (the outermost being rock-hard ice, merging into glacially-ductile inner ice as it gets closer to the saline sub-ice ocean), so it might indeed have a brulet-like 'crust' (by 'feel', however uncustardy it actually is) but it's probably not really like the "ice bedrock and hydrocarbon surface-runoff" of Titan that generated the brittle feel that Huygens's landing revealed right at the surface. Perhaps in the vicinity of an active crack/outflow of material (or 'downwind') where it may leave some ejected water to fall back down and refreeze atop the more permanent ice. But only a decent lander (in the right place, or with some residual mobility to hop around a few times) can really get Huygens-like data about the physical surface to any great degree of certainty. And only an (as yet pipe-dreamed) excavating/burrowing probe can get the real low-down on the lower down layers and (perhaps) the eventual subsurface ocean interface. The technical challenges for that will be a bit beyond what we can currently plan for, especially while we still have the wide uncertainty what order of magnitude for the thickness of ice we might actually have to work with. (Or if we can scuttle over to an active crack/vent and make use of that as a safer manner of ingress.)

Whatever it is, that kind of spoon is unlikely to do more than sample-return the very outermost bit of ice (or frozen slush?), somewhat less than a thousandth of the depth you might like to go, as merely a first hint (by sample return or on-location analysis) of the possible composition/extent of the sub-surface ocean. It'd be nice to get a general profile of its salts, even if it's lacking interesting organics or organic-related compounds. But ice-geyser plumes might (should?) provide the same sort of clues, anyway, just passing through without even any landing involved. 172.68.205.150 17:25, 15 November 2024 (UTC)