In what is probably today’s strangest story, NASA is launching a “message in a bottle” to Jupiter’s moon Europa using the Europa Clipper spacecraft later this year.
It’s part of the space agency’s quest to find alien life on the Gas Giant’s moon.
In October this year, the Europa Clipper spacecraft will blast off toward Jupiter’s moon Europa, beaming out a “richly layered dispatch” of millions of names.
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“The content and design of Europa Clipper’s vault plate are swimming with meaning,” Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement.
Apparently, the Europa Clipper will take nearly six years to make the .6 million-mile journey to Jupiter’s moon.
But when it gets there, which is estimated to be April 2030, the NASA spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and make 49 close flybys of Europa.
There is strong evidence that beneath Europa’s icy crust, there is a global ocean that is over twice the volume of all Earth’s oceans combined.
Moreover, the spacecraft will also carry a triangular metal plate that signifies the best that the Earth has to offer.
Since the exploration is to find usable water on Europa, the metal plate will be engraved with a visual representation of sound waves saying “water” spoken in 103 languages.
Even better, the etched waveforms form a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for “water.”
“The plate combines the best humanity has to offer across the universe – science, technology, education, art, and math. The message of connection through water, essential for all forms of life as we know it, perfectly illustrates Earth’s tie to this mysterious ocean world we are setting out to explore,” Glaze added.
Interestingly, the plate will also have the U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa” etched along with a microchip containing the names of 2.6 million names submitted for the “message in a bottle” campaign.
The Europa Clipper will take off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Station in October, and NASA is preparing it for its long journey to Europa.
