The Space Laser

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Getting through the ice at a place like Europa is really hard because it tends to want to close up on itself. And so you need something that's going to kind of hold open the hole once you've made it. So I don't know if just a single laser pointing down would accomplish this as you're fighting against nature, which just wants to freeze the whole damn thing over. Mm-hmm. You need a perfectly vertical lightsaber. Perfect right there. Just let it keep going down.

Could there be life under the icy surface of Europa? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic Chuck Nice explore interplanetary missions, asteroid mining, and other exciting launches with the Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Laurie Leshin.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/cosmic-queries-the-future-of-the-nasa-jet-propulsion-lab-with-laurie-leshin/

Thanks to our Patrons Statton Broxham, Ethan Codyre, Ron Lanier,

Nathaniel England, and Roger Lee for supporting us this week.

Photo Credit: NASA / Jet Propulsion Lab-Caltech / SETI Institute, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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