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Design a Spacecraft to test for Life on Europa

Activity Guidelines

The goal is to design a spacecraft that will travel to Europa and then determine whether or not life exists on Europa. You should keep in mind that Europa is different from Earth and that the spacecraft will have to deal with different environments. Here are some resources about Europa:

While designing a spacecraft, students might take into account:

fuel
requirements to achieve long-distance space travel
spacecraft materials
requirements to exit Earth's atmosphere
guidance systems
control systems
storage
data transmission

NOTE: The designs should not be complex. The above guidelines are merely suggestions and are designed to get students thinking about the overall goal of getting a spacecraft to Europa and some of the possible problems in doing so. The spacecraft design should be kept as simple as possible but might incorporate the results of students' thinking about the above issues and other problems.

Once the spacecraft reaches Europa, it should perform some tests to determine whether or not life exists on Europa. Again, the primary goal is not to have students design a perfect system, but to encourage thinking and discussion about some of the problems and challenges involved with testing for life. Also, this part of the activity will facilitate designing a system that addresses some of the main goals but is not without flaws.