Europa Lander mission and the context of international cooperation Review Article

From 2007 the Russian Academy of Sciences and Roscosmos consider to develop a Europa surface element, in coordination with the Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) international project planned to study the Jupiter system. The main scientific objectives of the Europa Lander are to search for the signatures of possible present and extinct life, in situ studies of the Europa internal structure, the surface and the environment. The mission includes the lander, and the relay orbiter, to be launched by Proton and carried to Jupiter with electric propulsion. The mass of scientific instruments on the lander is ∼50 kg, and its planned lifetime is 60 days. A dedicated international Europa Lander Workshop (ELW) was held in Moscow in February 2009. Following the ELW materials and few recent developments, the paper describes the planned mission, including the science goals, technical design of the mission elements, the ballistic scheme, and the synergy between the Europa Lander and the EJSM.