ATTENTION PEOPLE OF EARTH

Humans of Earth, I come in peace.

My name is Rina Patel, and I am a senior at BASIS Flagstaff. For the last trimester of my school year, I will be researching what it would take to colonize Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, as my Senior Research Project (SRP). You may be wondering, "Why did she choose Europa?" Well the answer to that question, much like Europa itself, is an enigma. I don't even know! In fact, us people of the 21st century may never know the answer. But in order to understand my strange admiration to the Jovian moon, just take a look at it right here. 

How can we not want to colonize this beauty?

But apart from my mere fascination of the moon, I feel as though this project will increase the public's knowledge about space exploration and make the people more aware of current issues involving space, ultimately refueling some moderate interest in space exploration for today's youth.

During the next 12 weeks, I will be investigating the existing evidence for and against the possibility of colonizing Europa. This will include looking into the potential challenges we may be face when traveling to and living on Europa (how to get there, how to colonize, and how to survive). My research process will mostly be done by literature reviews on scientific articles about the expected Europan environment and interplanetary space. I will then address these challenges with my own ideas, influenced by the literature and my advisers. At the end of the trimester, I will have created a 6-7 minute presentation on my findings and my plan to colonize Europa.

I look forward to start my journey to Europa, and I hope throughout the next 12 weeks, you will be to!