Ⓒ NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Brian Swift/CC BY
Ryan Ogliore (Washington University in St. Louis, USA) currently leading a group of scientists and engineers in developing an exciting robotic space mission to explore Io’s volcanoes the same way a human geologist would: by observing eruptions up close and bringing samples back to the lab. If selected as part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, the mission will launch in the early 2030s, and will be implemented by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Since Io’s volcanic plumes are spewing gas and dust more than 100 miles into space, collecting samples from Io’s volcanoes is easier than getting samples from other worlds. Instead of performing a soft landing, trying to find the perfect spot to collect a sample, collecting a sample, and then launching again to return the sample to Earth, we can just fly through one of the volcanic plumes. Our mission, named “Prometheus,” would go into orbit around Jupiter and fly by Io a few times to scope out the active volcanoes and their plumes. Then we’d target one particular plume—most likely the Old Faithful of Io: Prometheus (after which our mission is named).
Using autonomous navigation, we’d fly through the center of the plume several miles above Io’s surface while carefully avoiding those tall mountains. We would trap dust and gas within the plume in a pizza-sized collector while the rest of the spacecraft was safely shielded from impacts. Flying at the altitude of a commercial airliner, we’d capture images and video of Io’s volcanic hellscape (lava lakes, foundering mountain blocks, fire fountains, lava flows) at high resolution, which would surely be some of the most stunning space images ever captured. With a powerful burn from the spacecraft’s rockets, we would leave the Jupiter system and bring pieces of Io home for high-precision analyses in laboratories on Earth.
Is this bonkers? Yes. Is it possible? Also yes.
Ⓒ Ryan Ogliore