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I don't get it. It seems like there is a LOT more attention on Mars than there is for Europa when it comes to the search for life. Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasons why we're looking on Mars. It's been proven to have liquid water on it's surface even today (under special conditions), but also has lake beds and signs of oceans in it's distant geological past. It still has an atmosphere, albeit a ver weak one. It's got more gravity than most other worlds, next to Earth and the gas giants. Mars is somewhat like Earth, at least in the past it was. It's also right next door from Earth, and depending on how you throw something at Mars, it could take less than a year to arrive to the red planet. And, finally, It is undeniably a beautiful and very mysterious looking planet. I hope to one day set foot on that planet, honestly. But, that is likely not going to happen. I certainly hope we really can get people there, though. All that said, Mars is friggin awesome. And mysterious, and it had every right to be a candidate for the search for life. However, it is ridden with deadly radiation, and we don't really know if there is anything living on the surface. And many scientist only postulate that life could (or have) exist beneath the surface. There are plenty of reasons why we would think life could be on Mars right now, but there are plenty of reasons why it wouldn't exist right now (or may have never existed). I'm not saying that I don't think we shouldn't look: I am fairly optimistic in the fact that there might actually be something there, but the red planet is barren, and dry. There would be a lot of challenges of identifying any kind life there. Europa on the other hand... my god. First and foremost, I just have to say this: Europa is very visually pleasing, and there's just something about that moon that really makes me drawn to it. It's beautiful, in my opinion, and every time I look at it, I feel some sort of euphoria each time. There's so much we just don't know about Europa, and at the same time, there's a lot of stuff there that we theoretically understand, and yet, we have hardly made any efforts to truly prove or dispute our theories behind the mysterious and incredibly beautiful moon. And after seeing Europa Report a couple of years ago, it really made me wonder: why haven't we further explored this world? We recently discovered that the moon had plate tectonics. Scientists believe that the moon has water geysers, much like Enceladus. There's also a lot of speculation that this world might even have massive subsurface oceans, which can be postulated based on the fact that their appears to be constant change on it's surface, as if sheets of thick ice are bobbing on top of water (okay, that's an exaggeration, but you get the idea). And as many scientists and astrobiologists have explained: where we have found water, we have found life. Of all places, we have 100% proven that mars can have stable liquid water (again, only under special conditions), but we haven't really observed water on Europa (have we? Correct me where I am wrong). In theory we believe there is water, but instead of focusing on a tectonically active ball of ice, we focus on a geologically dead rusty old planet. I can see why we focus on Mars: my best understanding is that it is simply much closer, and it's something a lot of us would want to live on and colonize in the future. I would sort of have to disagree with humans spreading to other worlds, but that's another topic I will debate some other time. What is important is that we're trying to find alien life, even if it's just germs and simple bacteria. Even something simple like that would change the course of humanity. Europa is far. It's no joke. You're looking at at least three times the travel time it would take you to get to Mars. And the farther you have to fling yourself in the solar system, the more energy you need to expend. And that means you gotta pack a lot more fuel or use more efficient, but ludicrously expensive engines.And getting to Jupiter seems like the easy part: dealing with it's radiation is terrifying to say the least. Most equipment only lasts a few years around Jupiter before being fried beyond use. Those seem to be the primary deterrents of actually exploring Europa. It's not easy. But this begs the question: can't we just sit a lander on the far side of Europa? And even then, wouldn't anything beneath the the moon's icy surface be mostly shielded from the radiation, anyway? I'm sure a good handful of people are aware of JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer). Or was it this? Okay, so there's a few plans for exploring Europa. But, given a lot of the possibilities, even considering a lot of the technological hurdles, I'm honestly surprised we don't focus more on Europa over Mars, which in my opinion, seems more a likely candidate to harbour life. What do you think? should we explore Europa more than Mars? Oh yeah, and for those of you who think we're doing it wrong, let's consider Titan as well. For all we know, the life we're looking for doesn't thrive on water at all, or is probably not carbon based. I haven't forgotten about that, and personally, I would agree with that statement. Unfortunately, Titan is a whole other ball park, and if you ask me, it seems like we should focus on more familiar territory and study it before we move into something we hardly understand at all. Anyway, Titan is another discussion, plus it's even further, so... let's hold off on that for now.