Roving in Mars is cool, don’t get me wrong. But there’s a reason why by now the Red Planet has become a collective Rorschach test for all those enthusiasts striving to take Pareidolia to unexpected levels: Unless you’re a hardcore geology nerd, Mars is just too featureless; too arid, too… lifeless.
Which is why a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa would be far more exciting. As explained in this video by NASA-JPL astrobiologist Kevin Hand, the Jovian world has the most ideal conditions to discover not only organic molecules churning out beneath its ice cap by hydrothermal vents, but perhaps even a whole new alien ecosystem of complex aquatic lifeforms, evolved thanks to the tidal waves created by Jupiter’s massive gravity pull over its moon, as envisioned by Arthur C Clarke in the 1st sequel of the 2001 tetralogy.
That discovery would add a whole new volume in the book of Life, and would surely change the entire course of human history.
…Unless we end up receiving an “attempt no landing there” from our Firstborn overlords. That would be cool, too.
