{"409281":{"#nid":"409281","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Faculty selected as co-investigators for  NASA mission to Europa","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo faculty members in Georgia Tech\u2019s College of Sciences are now involved with a future flight to Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa. Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/people\/Carol_Paty\u0022\u003ECarol Paty\u003C\/a\u003E and Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/people\/Britney_Schmidt\u0022\u003EBritney Schmidt\u003C\/a\u003E are co-investigators for two instruments that will fly to Europa in the 2020s and study the ocean world for three years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEuropa is an ice-encrusted world known to encase a global ocean of liquid water that is heated by Jupiter\u2019s tidal forces. On Earth, where there is liquid water and energy, there is life. As such, Europa has long been considered one of the solar system\u2019s best-suited vistas to search for life.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchmidt is a co-investigator for the REASON instrument - Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface, led by Donald Blankenship at the University of Texas. REASON is a dual-frequency ice-penetrating radar that will characterize and sound Europa\u2019s icy crust from the near-surface to the ocean, revealing the hidden structure of Europa\u2019s ice shell and potential water within.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI got into planetary science to help answer the question of whether Europa hosts life. I\u2019ve spent 14 years working with colleagues to send a spacecraft back to Europa, and it\u2019s finally happening,\u201d said Schmidt. \u201cThe highlight of the Europa mission is that it will use a suite of complementary instruments working together to figure out whether Europa is habitable or not \u0026shy;\u2013 a key step along the path to finding life. It\u2019s a great time to be an astrobiologist.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchmidt says that REASON is a critical part of the story, with the ability to \u201csee\u201d through Europa\u2019s ice and map out its structure. It may also find locations of water pockets within, and potentially the ocean below the ice. REASON will deliver some of the most critical missing pieces of the Europan habitability puzzle: how does the ice shell work, and is there water?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPaty is on the science team for REASON and PIMS \u2013 the Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding, led by Joseph Westlake of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. PIMS, in combination with the magnetometer, will study Europa\u2019s ocean depth, salinity and the thickness of the moon\u2019s surface.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI am beyond thrilled to be a part of these fantastic instrument teams and to have the opportunity to explore Europa,\u201d said Paty, whose research has focused on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn for more than a decade. \u201cThe PIMS and REASON instruments will greatly enhance our understanding of this icy world by enabling us to probe its surrounding environment and subsurface structures.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe PIMS will measure the plasma environment at Europa in order to quantify the magnetic field generated by plasma-driven current systems surrounding the icy moon. In this way, Paty says the science team can refine its understanding of the currents and fields generated by the subsurface ocean and more accurately characterize its size, depth and salinity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EREASON and PIMS are two of the nine instruments NASA recently selected for the mission. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPaty and Schmidt are faculty of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and members of Georgia Tech\u2019s Center for Space Technology and Research (C-STAR). C-STAR organizes, integrates and facilitates the Institute\u2019s space science and technology research activities, bringing together a wide range of Georgia Tech faculty who are active in space-related research and functioning as a focal point for the growth of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.aerospace.georgiainnovation.org\u0022\u003Espace industry in the state of Georgia\u003C\/a\u003E. C-STAR personnel are advancing the frontiers of astrophysics, Earth science, planetary science, robotics, space policy, space technology and space systems engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWith science investigators on multiple deep space missions and a small spacecraft development pipeline that is turning out flight hardware, Georgia Tech\u2019s spaceflight capability is certainly on the rise,\u201d said Robert Braun, C-STAR director. \u201cHaving Georgia Tech faculty involved in this mission is fantastic news for the campus, the state and the nation, capitalizing on the integrated science and engineering competency that characterizes much of our research.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo faculty members in Georgia Tech\u2019s College of Sciences are now involved with a future flight to Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa. Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/people\/Carol_Paty\u0022\u003ECarol Paty\u003C\/a\u003E and Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/people\/Britney_Schmidt\u0022\u003EBritney Schmidt\u003C\/a\u003E are co-investigators for two instruments that will fly to Europa in the 2020s and study the ocean world for three years.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Two faculty members are now involved with a future flight to Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa."}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2015-06-01 16:45:22","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:25","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-06-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-06-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"409271":{"id":"409271","type":"image","title":"Europa Rendering","body":null,"created":"1449254195","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:36:35","changed":"1475895137","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:17","alt":"Europa Rendering","file":{"fid":"202220","name":"europa_rendering.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/europa_rendering_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/europa_rendering_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3655359,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/europa_rendering_0.jpg?itok=vrq2sTTm"}}},"media_ids":["409271"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/press-release\/nasa-s-europa-mission-begins-with-selection-of-science-instruments","title":"Ready more from NASA"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"2082","name":"aerospace engineering"},{"id":"81291","name":"Britney Schmidt"},{"id":"91821","name":"C-STAR"},{"id":"127551","name":"Carol Paty"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003ENational Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}