Sunday, February 19

A Manned Trip to Europa?

Of course, NASA may not be sending humans to Europa anytime soon (nor anywhere else), but Hollywood believes Europa may be a good backdrop for dramatic story-telling. In fact, the movie creators have set up a fun site under the name Europa Ventures LLC where you can watch the crew as the cross the solar system on their three-year journey to Jupiter's moon.  A pretty inventive approach to an interesting film.

The website also includes a mission statement:

For decades, scientists have theorized the existence of liquid water oceans on Jupiter's moon, Europa. We've recently discovered new, captivating evidence that these sub-surface oceans do exist and could support life. 

We've sent six astronauts from space programs throughout the world on a three year journey to Europa to explore its oceans and confirm these findings. 

We're proud to be at the forefront of the effort to prove the existence of extra-terrestrial life within our solar system, within our lifetimes. 

This allows us to have a little bit of fun while the Congress battles over the budget. The film will be released sometime in 2013. Somehow we need to keep NASA in the "forefront" as well.

 Update:  Here is a copy of the Europa Ventures screen if you have not seen it.