Europa is another of the Jupiter satellites covered by ice. The surface is smooth with few impact craters, indicating that it is very young. In fact, the surface may be so young that resurfacing is currently happening on Europa. What is below the surface of ice? The ice is about 150 km thick and below that there is an ocean of liquid water.
Scientists have confirmed that such an ocean harbor life with the heat energy coming from the tidal flexure of Europa. If the cracks seen in Europa’s surface are much thinner parts of the crust, it may be possible for a submarine probe to melt its way down through the ice and travel the hidden waters of the subsurface ocean.
What Сan You Do Here:
- the Sea Wonders Aquarium (located on the moon’s surface on stilted platforms covering several hectares), includes 12 separate pavilions, which showcase various life forms from the oceans of planets and moons in the solar system and beyond. More than 10 million tourists visit the aquarium every year. Here you can observe the flora and fauna of tropical oceans, icy oceans, incredible deep-sea worlds, inhabitants of waters with an aggressive environment, radioactive swamps, toxic mangroves, reservoirs with high pressure and with alternating seasonality (complete drought and then filling reservoirs with rain);
- Transgalactic Academy of Oceanography and Museum of Oceanography: in the museum, you can see various extinct forms of marine life collected from different planets and moons of the solar system and other galaxies, as well as the evolution of research ships, shuttles and submarines, on which scientists studied the secrets of the distant oceans;
- the submarines building facility owned by Aquanautica Corp.: the plant builds vessels of various classes and configurations for all known aquatic environments on the explored planets and moons. In a private covered dock, guests will visit the iconic Monster Mum, the first Class 2 submarine with a 16-stroke cold nuclear fusion engine in service. This is an amazing vessel that served as the flagship of the Earth’s submarine fleet for 70 years, and after its decommissioning, returned home to Europe;
- docks for the production, assembly and repair of space shuttles – space ships are being built on Europe. Vast areas are occupied by the production workshops of the largest corporations that carry out space flights. It is here that all the ships of our space fleet were assembled, which gave our guests the opportunity to explore the wonders of space;
- open pit sulfur mining plants: the surface of Europe is covered with numerous brown stripes, these are all vast deposits of sulfur, which is mined here in open pits and fractures of the planet in permafrost conditions. The excursion to the deposits for lovers of industrial tourism. One of the local wonders is the “sulfur statues”, a natural phenomenon where the sulfur transforms into various figures and shapes on the surface.
Nearest Tour Dates: flights to Jupiter and its moons take place every week on Mondays.
Tour Duration: from 1 to 4 weeks.
Restrictions:
- some areas of the subglacial ocean have not yet been fully explored, excursions to these regions are intended exclusively for scientists and researchers who must have a special travel permits;
- all the exclusive souvenirs bought in the Sea Wonders Aquarium and the Museum of Oceanography are accompanied with a certificate allowing their export from Europe;
- to visit the Sea Wonders Aquarium, you need to book tickets at least 1 month in advance;
- Jupiter’s orbit is occasionally affected by electrical storms, which can influence the exact arrival and departure times of shuttles from the local spaceport.