NASA to Miss Europa in 20 Years ?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around NASA's exploration plans for Europa, particularly focusing on the use of an underwater robot for practice in a Mexican sinkhole. Participants express skepticism about NASA's ability to meet future mission timelines and highlight perceived inaccuracies in reporting.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions the reliability of NASA's mission timelines, suggesting a pattern of missed deadlines based on the article's implications.
  • Another participant humorously critiques the conversion of measurements, indicating a lack of accuracy in the reporting.
  • Several participants express disbelief regarding the reported dimensions, with one asserting that basic conversions should be well-known.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally express skepticism about NASA's accuracy and reliability, with multiple competing views on the credibility of the information presented in the article.

Contextual Notes

There are unresolved issues regarding the accuracy of measurement conversions and the implications of NASA's exploration timeline, which depend on the definitions and interpretations of the reported data.

berkeman
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Why does this article make me think they may miss another one? :rolleyes:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3188967&page=1

NASA Using Mexican Sinkhole to Practice for Jupiter Exploration

NASA is testing an underwater robot in one of Earth's deepest sinkholes in a first step toward searching for life on Jupiter's icy moon, Europa. El Zacaton, near the Gulf coast of northeastern Mexico, is about 100 metres (328 feet) wide and more than 1,000 metres (1,000 feet) deep. It could easily hold the Eiffel Tower. Scientists plan to map and take samples in the dark, water-filled fissure with the 1.5 tonne DEPTHX robot over the next two weeks as a prelude to the proposed navigation of Europa's ice-capped oceans in about 20 years.

The mission is the latest step in a 400-year-old endeavor to understand Jupiter and its distant moons. "We're so sure there's water on Europa that the real question is whether there is also life, whether there's something in the ocean that bugs can eat," said Chris McKay of the NASA Ames Research Center in California.

<more...>

Of course, in fairness to NASA, it may be a Reuters typo. Let's hope so! :smile:
 
Physics news on Phys.org
:smile: Nice! As if equating yards to meters wasn't bad enough...

- Warren
 
Awesome :smile:
 
Can't these people get anything right? Even a third-grader knows that 100m = 100ft.
 
neutrino said:
Can't these people get anything right? Even a third-grader knows that 100m = 100ft.

HAHA! :smile: :smile: :biggrin: :-p
 

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