Both the book and the movie 2010 told us we can pretty much go wherever we want in the Solar System except Europa; “ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.” But Europa is exactly where we should go, especially if we want to take advantage of the best chances we know of to find extraterrestrial life. This ice-covered cue ball moon of Jupiter harbors a subsurface ocean with more liquid water than found on the surface of Earth and its surface is stained with streaks of organic compounds. Everything we know about life on Earth and Europa indicates that there’s a habitable environment located just a few miles below its ice, right now, waiting for us to not only attempt a landing but drill down and take a look around. Fortunately, this is exactly what some scientists at NASA are planning on doing.
Lights in the Dark 