Why??!!

"There's very strong evidence that the ingredients for life exist on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, but we have to go there to find out," said Bonnie Buratti, mission deputy scientist at NASA.

She is talking about the ludicrous five-and-a-half year (!) journey just launched to orbit this moon.  My question is, why??!!  To what end??

Another bizarre mission.

I asked the same question about the 'Artemis II' mission, which went in 2023 and apparently had no objectives either.  I kid you not!  (See 'Why ??!!', April 4, 2023)  When asked what the mission purpose was, Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian astronaut said, "Well the crew and I have been talking that over and trying to figure it out."  He actually said that!!  All Roberta Bondar, another Canadian astronaut said was, "To try and stay alive!"  You could not make this up.

And what is this latest nonsense going to cost?

$5.2 billion!  We all know that will double because such mega-projects always do.  Galileo first spotted it in 1610, but we haven't needed to bother with it since.  So why now?  I guess to keep NASA humming along.  I mean, what other reason could there be?  No one is going to live there because it takes five-and-a half years to get there, so that's not an option.

The space vehicle will not even land on Europa or Jupiter to look for signs of life.  No, the plan is to orbit Jupiter and conduct dozens of close passes of the moon to see if it could support life.  Again, I ask, why??

There are far more pressing issues $5.2 billion could be spent on right here on earth.