Specialists of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the launch of a joint mission, the main purpose of which will be to search for traces of life on the satellite of Jupiter Europe. The mission will go to the satellite in the mid-2020s, representatives of agencies said at a meeting of the European Union of Earth Sciences.

The key goal of the future Joint Europa Mission program will be the study of the ice crust and the subglacial ocean of Europe, finding out their composition, structure and searching for traces of possible life. It is planned that the mission will consist of orbital and descent modules, the last of which should be worked on the surface of the satellite for about 35 days, collecting and examining the samples.

It is assumed that the orbiter will work for several months, conducting research that will allow scientists to learn more about the internal structure of Europe. After the collection of information has been completed, the module will be controlled from the orbit and broken into the surface of the satellite, collecting new data on the composition of gases of its fine atmosphere. According to calculations, in total, the mission will last about 6.5 years.