pstrongExceptionally absorbing and thrilling. ... Masterful. --emNatureemstrongppstrongA magnificent emScientific Americanem, genre-defying narrative of the most ambitious science project ever conceived NASA's deep space mission to Europa, the Jovian moon where might swim the first known alien life in our solar systemstrongppIn the spirit of Tom Wolfe and John McPhee, emThe Mission emis an exuberant master class of creative nonfiction that reveals how a motley, determined few expanded the horizon of human achievement. ppWhen scientists discovered the first ocean beyond Earth, they had two big questions Is it habitable and How do we get there To answer the first, they had to solve the second, and so began a vivacious team's twenty-year odyssey to mount a mission to Europa, the ocean moon of Jupiter.ppStanding in their way NASA, fanatically consumed with landing robots on Mars the White House, which never saw a science budget it couldn't cut Congress, fixated on going to the moon or Mars