Senior Researcher Says Project To Be Announced Soon

All fans of Arthur C. Clarke's novel "2010: Odyssey Two" may feel a slight shudder upon reading this next story. A Russian researcher says the European Space Agency will soon announce plans to launch an unmanned probe to investigate the Jovian moon of Europa, to search for simple lifeforms.

Agence-France Presse reports the head of the Russian Space Research Institute, Lev Zelyony, broke the news this weekend... adding Russia will participate in the mission, slated for sometime between 2015 and 2025.

"The main task is to explore its satellite Europa, on which under a thick layer of ice a liquid water ocean has been detected," said Zelyony.

Unlike Clarke's vision of a mission to Europa -- which saw the Chinese manned spacecraft Tsien land on the mysterious moon -- the ESA's unmanned mission will be called Laplace, Zelyony said, after the French astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace. Apart from that, however, there are many similarities.

Like the fictional Tsien landing, Laplace will also land on Europa, and then search for possible lifeforms contained inside and underneath the frozen ice layer surrounding the planet. Zelyony said the probe may land in one of the fissures of that crust.

"Where there is an ocean, life could arise. In this respect, after Mars, the Europa satellite is probably the most intriguing place in the solar system," said Zelyony.

Hopefully, the ESA/Russian mission will end better than the Tsien's -- which in the novel was destroyed by primitive, creeping plant-like lifeforms as the crew refilled the spacecraft's fuel tanks with water from the planet. (Helpful hint to ESA, do NOT equip the Laplace probe with bright lights -- Ed.)

Russia has cooperated with ESA extensively in revitalizing its space program, after years of neglect following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. A Russian Soyuz mission is scheduled to blast off late this year from ESA's Kourou launchpad in French Guiana.

FMI: www.esa.int, www.iki.rssi.ru/eng/index.htm