Europa

June 20, 2048

While I was eating my lunch today, I finally had a memorable one on one experience with Ming Lee. He came up to me while I was eating lunch and I almost jumped when I saw him sitting across from me. He did not make a sound when he approached me.

He had a few questions on what I thought about the probability of discovering life on Europa. Lee assured me that no matter how high or low they were, it would not impact his choice to join the mission, he was just curious. He also added that his primary motivation to join the mission was boredom with the simplicity of his life on the planet, not the prospect of discovering new alien life.

I explained to him some of the complex variables I'd evaluated while researching Europa, such as the radiation, the potentially deep oceans that flow beneath the ice heated by the push and pull-on Europa's core due to the intense gravity of Jupiter, whether or not Europa's environment has been stable enough to sustain life, and the proper chemical building blocks of life. I pointed out that after years of studying these variables from Earth I found them promising enough to dedicate my life to a trip to see the moon in person.

He seemed intrigued by the fact I was willing to give so much up to see for myself, but it seemed like he was more looking for some sort of numerical odds on a scale from zero to one hundred percent.

I emphasized that there was no way for us to know the odds, especially considering despite all our research we still knew so little about Europa. Even if we conclusively knew everything about the moon's environment, the truth is until we discover or consistently fail to discover alien life where we expect it to be, we have no way of knowing how rare life is in the universe. For all we know, several different planetary bodies in our solar system may contain life. While my research was focused on Europa, and I truly believe Europa is the most promising, there are other promising options such as Mars, Venus, Enceladus, and Titan.

I think my answer satisfied Lee, although I would not be surprised if he came to me with some numbers he cranked out. I wouldn't be surprised if they were accurate too. I have no idea how to calculate the odds of something that seems so non numerical, but numbers just seem to come natural to Ming Lee. That and videogames. He made a comment about how he wouldn't have to wait as long for this game he'd been waiting for due to the cryofreezing in the mission. I think he was kidding, but I honestly can't be so sure.