Could a submarine be built on the moon then travel to the oceans of europa?

Question

build it on the moon with low gravity or even in space and then send it to europa's oceans.... of course there will need to be enough open water away from the ice for it to submerge in the oceans of europa...

Answer 1

Oh, YES! But it's going to take some time to melt through the thick ice using nuclear energy!

Answer 2

Ah, with enought MONEY and TIME; anything is possible, even this.

Steve

Answer 3

Currently we cannot even get to the moon, and you are suggesting we build an entire civilization up there: hundreds of industrial plants to build the myriad of parts to build a submarine?  Submarines consist of hundreds of thousands of parts, each requiring manufacture in a specialized facility.  They require specialized steel, HY80.  the iron for this would have to be mined, and the proper procedures and additives used to produce the steel desired. All of this manufacturing would require a few million workers, each of which has to be housed and fed and their children educated.  And a submarine designed for earths oceans would not work on far Europa.  Vastly different temperatures.  New materials would be needed.  And just how do you get through a mile or so of ice.  

Perhaps not impossible, but pretty darned close.

Answer 4

Yes, I think it`s absolutely possible. The air has waves and pressure so does the water. Remember the Zappelin during the n**i`s time. It was a space ship.

There is one thing, you must be very careful. Very, very careful. When drunk, you don`t drive. But you can launch a rocket. As long as you go up and there is no traffic lights.

Answer 5

I think we're a few trillion dollars shy of having sufficient infrastructure on the moon for such an undertaking.  

Answer 6

Yes,this would be incredible impractical.

engineers are currently working on a probe for this purpose

Answer 7

*Could* we? Sure. *Why* would we? I honestly don't know. Working in 1/3 of the gravity on Earth would make it harder. Making a sub would take thousands of engineers and scientists and each space suit costs a whole lot of money. It would take millions of dollars to get the supplies, and billions to ship it off to space. Billions more to build it. And we would have to give food and water to the people working on the project which costs millions to ship up.

The only advantage would be that it is a bit closer to Europa, but only by 250,000 miles. I think building a simple probe on Earth and launching it from Earth would be a better decision.

Now, if we were to make a space station on the moon, and actually have a scientific colony, then we would hold construction on the moon. Although gravity would present a problem, it wouldn't be a huge one. But a scientific colony is far away from development.

Answer 8

Yes, but it would not be necessary to build it on the moon.

I am sure the next probe to visit Europa would have submersible capabilities/explorer component.  Much like the Mars lander/rover, a submersible would be deployed to both photograph the underwater world as well as test for the presence of organic compounds.  

However, I doubt the initial unmanned probes would be completely submarine, as radio waves do not travel well underwater.  There will be a need to maintain a fairly tight link between JPL and the unit, due to memory constraints (detailed pictures are ridiculously large files), large communications distances (severely reduces the speed of data transmits), and the need to track telemetry data (position data to map out where the unit is).  Therefore, it may always have either a hardline tether to a surface vehicle or a streaming antenna to transmit data and reduce the need to make space for memory storage.

In the end, I would think any lander (manned/unmanned) to Europa would be at least "seaworthy".  However, being a submersible may not be a consistent requirement.