The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

an imaging device capable of resolving surface detail as
small as 100 m and an altimeter for accurately measuring
the topography and movements of the surface in
response to tidal stresses. The Orbiter would serve as a
precursor to other projects, such as the Europa Lander
and the Europa Subsurface mission, that would sample
the Europan surface and, eventually, penetrate the top
layers of ice to discover exactly what lies underneath.
Although NASA canceled the Europa Orbiter in 2002, it
is a mission likely to be reinstated over the next decade.
Europa Subsurface mission
A mission beyond the Europa Orbiter and the Europa
Lander to carry out the far more technologically difficult
task of penetrating the frozen crust of this Jovian moon
in order to hunt for life in the putative subsurface ocean.
It would probably involve the use of cryobots (melting
devices) and hydrobots (minisubs). The Europa Subsurface
mission is identified in NASA’s Office of Space Science
Strategic Plan as a potential mission beyond 2007
but remains in an early concept definition phase.
Eurospace
An organization that represents the interests of the European
space industry. Founded in 1961, its membership
includes 66 companies from 13 countries in Western
Europe that account for about 95% of the total turnover
of the European space industry.
EUVE (Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer) 129
Eutelsat (European Telecommunications
Satellite Organisation)
An organization that operates about 15 satellites and
offers satellite communications services to Europe, Asia,
Africa, and America. Founded in 1985 as an intergovernmental
entity, it now represents the interests of 47
European countries. In 2001, Eutelsat’s structure was
streamlined into two tiers: Eutelsat, S.A., a private limited
company with headquarters in Paris, to which all
assets and activities were transferred; and an intergovernmental
organization to ensure that the company observes
the principles of pan-European coverage and fair competition.
EUV
Extreme ultraviolet; a portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum from approximately 10 to 100 nm.
EUVE (Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer)
A NASA mission to study the universe as it appears in
short-wavelength ultraviolet (UV) light. EUVE carried
out an all-sky survey in the 7- to 76-nm portion of the
spectrum and a “deep survey” of a strip of the sky along
the ecliptic (plane of Earth’s orbit) with extremely high
sensitivity. It performed follow-up spectroscopic observations
on bright extreme ultraviolet (EUV) point sources,
studying more than 1,000 objects in our galaxy and more
than three dozen that lie beyond. Its results have been
Europa Subsurface mission
Beneath these ice rafts on
Jupiter’s moon Europa, scientists
believe there may be a
watery ocean that could be
explored by a future robotic
probe. NASA/JPL