【Taboo Sex Daughter】

NASA is Taboo Sex Daughterheaded to Jupiter's fascinating moon Europa this year. Scientists suspect a deep ocean sloshes beneath the icy world's crust.

The looming mission, called Europa Clipper, will launch in October, sending a spacecraft the length of a basketball court to make around 50 flybys by the distant Jovian moon, assessing whether it could harbor conditions suitable for life. It won't, however, land on the ice crust.

Yet the space agency is already preparing an ambitious follow-up mission, aptly named Europa Lander, that will touch down on the moon's surface and dig or drill into the ice. "In this mission concept, a spacecraft would land on Europa and collect and study samples from about 4 inches (10 centimeters) beneath the surface, looking for signs of life," NASA explains.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

---

You May Also Like

---

---

SEE ALSO: NASA will land daring spacecraft on a world 800 million miles away

The agency recently released images of the mission's unique landing gear, whose legs can absorb a heavy spacecraft's landing. Taken together, the lander's metal appendages make the craft look spider-like. Engineers are preparing to test these legs on a platform that will mimic a landing on Europa.

Below, you can see NASA staff working on this critical landing gear at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — the same lab that designed and built missions like the Jupiter-orbiting Juno probe, the legendary Voyager spacecraft, and the Mars Perseverance rover.

---

Related Stories

---

• NASA spacecraft keeps on going faster and faster and faster
• NASA finally opened its prized asteroid canister, and you can look inside
• The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
• On thrilling ocean world, NASA spots a vital element for life
• If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know

An engineer testing the Europa Lander's landing gear. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech The Europa Lander testbed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech NASA engineers working on the craft's landing system. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

The craft will need a robust landing system. It will carry instruments that will dig some four inches into Europa's ice. "This is a depth at which the complex chemistry of materials from the ocean below would be protected from the damaging radiation that exists in space around Jupiter," NASA explained. It will also have a "miniature laboratory" aboard, which will look for signs of life, among other instruments.

For now, the Europa Lander technically remains just a "proposal." But engineers are preparing for its reality. First, though, the Europa Clipper will scour the intriguing Europan surface. After traveling hundreds of millions of miles away, the orbiting probe will arrive at the icy destination in 2030.

• Deals
• Entertainment
• Digital Culture
• Science
• Shopping
• Games
• Social Good
• Life

• How to Reboot and Reset Android Devices
• The Obsessive Fictions of László Krasznahorkai by Dustin Illingworth
• The best Cyber Monday Vitamix blender deals
• A Polyphonic Novel of Midcentury San Francisco by Jessica Hagedorn
• Best Amazon deal: Get a $5 Amazon credit when you spend $30 on home essentials
• The Man Who Eats Glass by Eliane Brum
• Staff Picks: Ducks, Dubs, and Dung by The Paris Review
• Holy moly, shoppers spent so much money this Black Friday
• Dell S3422DWG Gaming Monitor deal: save $100 at Amazon
• Rigorous Grace: A Conversation Between Leslie Jamison and Kaveh Akbar by Kaveh Akbar

• The Victorian Fantasy of the North Pole Was the Opposite of Ours
• Making Theater: An Interview with Elizabeth LeCompte
• When Paula Wolfert Worked for The Paris Review
• Photos from Our 2017 Spring Revel
• Light of the World: Derek Walcott, 1930–2017
• What Is Poetry For?: Six More Public Cases
• Bayou Fever: Romare Bearden’s Dynamic Collages
• Chances with Wolves and the Lonesome Labor of Living
• Women at Work in the First World War
• Hardware Store Doppelgänger

• The Amazon Book Sale is coming April 23 through 28
• 9 Cyber Monday air fryer deals: Instant Pot Vortex, more
• How to watch GA Southern vs. Ohio football livestreams: kickoff time, streaming deals, and more
• 45 best gifts for her 2023: Unique picks she'll love
• Shop the Shark FlexStyle for 20% off at Amazon
• NYT's The Mini crossword answers for December 15
• 11 best sex and relationship podcasts of 2023
• A Bluebeard of Wives by Sabrina Orah Mark
• Whale Vomit Episode 5: Startup Monarchy
• 35+ best pet deals to shop on Cyber Monday

• 2025 Oscar winners: See the full list
• How to Write a Poem about Noguchi by Matthew Zapruder
• 35+ best pet deals to shop on Cyber Monday
• Staff Picks: Ducks, Dubs, and Dung by The Paris Review
• Best Garmin deal: Save $50 on the Venu 3S at Best Buy
• One Word: Avareh by Amir Ahmadi Arian
• Best iPad deal: Get the 2021 iPad Mini (6th gen) for $539.99
• Redux: What You Usually Find in Novels by The Paris Review
• 8 Years Later: Does the GeForce GTX 580 Still Have Game in 2018?
• Books Won’t Die by Leah Price