Water, water, and more water. The second drill has delivered some samples from the ocean below and they have all been plain, salty ocean water. While that is great it tells us nothing about whether there is life on this icy rock or not. Sometimes I question if I'm making a mistake and testing the same sample over and over again. This can be a tedious process. The hope is I find just a single microbe floating in the water, or some other promising signs. Until we set up at the third drill site my job is just rinse and repeat, waiting for something spectacular to happen. It's like scratching scratch off tickets.
I find it frustrating that I decided to continue with the Earth calendar naming system for this journal now that I am on Europa. On the spaceship it made a lot of sense because it helped me grasp a sense of time when we seemed to just be drifting into the deep void of space. Now on Jupiter however it is a bit strange. A day on Jupiter is around nine hours. The sun will rise and set twice on a day where I stay up a bit late and that will be considered one day. It can just be strange to think about. I've had a lot of time to think recently. The team has been much quieter as of recently. In a way it's because we have pieces missing.
During my free time I have been taking walks with Jenifer Miller to get her out of the compound. I am worried about her. Something seems to be off, almost as if her personality is absent. She eats her food, does her assignments, and goes to bed. It is almost like she's a machine.
I don't try to pry on the walks. It is just nice to see her out. When we are lucky, we get to see the sun set over the icy cliffs on the horizon and have its light replaced by the glowing surface of Europa in the dark. It gets darker here at night, but it is never truly dark. I wonder if the same glowing properties take place in the ocean below the surface. That would make for a stunning sight.
At this point I do not figure we will be able to find life without the submarines. I remember being quite excited about them on Earth, but to be honest now I somewhat dread them. It seems like anything that can go wrong will go wrong on Europa. At least when I think like that it makes it harder for me to become disappointed.
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Europa
Science-FictionIn order to embark on a mission to discover alien life on the icy moon of Jupiter Maria must leave her life on Earth behind, including her father and her seven-year-old son Diego. She thought the hardest part of the mission would be saying goodbye...
