When NASA takes off for Europa in 2022, humanity can thank this lifelong space enthusiast from the Houston suburbs

THE EUROPA MANDATE. U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) poses with members
of NASA’s Europa mission team. The congressman gets regular mission updates in
meetings with engineers and scientists

John Culberson got his first telescope at age 12. It was 1968, and humanity was headed to the Moon. Growing up in the Houston suburbs, he saw those Apollo astronauts as heroes. Flat feet and bad vision pushed him into a career in public service instead, but he never turned away from his love of astronomy.

Then, in 2014, Culberson finally got the job in Congress he’d wanted for more than a decade. He was selected chair of the Commerce, Science and Justice appropriations subcommittee, which controls the budget for, among other things, NASA and the National Science Foundation. His goal is to restore NASA to its Apollo glory days.

And he’s just getting started. Culberson wants NASA to go to Europa to find alien life. When they do, he says, it will be a catalyzing moment for humanity that will boost NASA budgets to the level necessary to begin planning for the next step: interstellar travel. Astronomy caught up with Culberson in early January after the omnibus spending bill passed.

Q: Why Europa? What’s driving your interest in these ocean worlds?

A: I believe the good Lord has seeded life all around us as far as the eye can see, and I am convinced that we will find life on another world for the first time in our own backyard. Odds are that will end up being in the oceans of Europa. That’s the consensus of the planetary science community — of the best minds in the space program. They all agree that the one place in our solar system where all the conditions are present for life to have evolved safely and securely, and in an environment that has all the right ingredients, is in the oceans of Europa.

Q: NASA didn’t want a lander on this mission, but would it be disappointing if we went there and didn’t look for life?

A: Absolutely. You cannot answer the question “Is there life on other worlds?” without landing on the surface and testing and tasting the ice and the plumes that are undoubtedly there. There’s no other way to know if there’s organic molecules there

— if there’s life in that ocean — unless you land on the surface. That’s the consensus of the scientific community. I’m convinced they’re right. And you know, since NASA’s a big bureaucracy, it’s difficult to get them to move or do things, so it was necessary for me to write it into law. In fact, this Europa mission with a lander is the only mission that it is illegal for NASA not to fly. And I made certain of that.

Q: What would finding life there do for humanity?

A: When that happens — when life is discovered on another world — that will be remembered forever as a transformational moment in human history. And it will galvanize the human race and the people of the United States to support our space program to the extent that’s necessary to take NASA to the next level. That will allow us to develop for the longer term the first interstellar rocket propulsion to take the first mission to Alpha Centauri. I want to lay the groundwork to see that happen. I want to see us be able to make it safe for humans to do very deepspace long-range flights that protect the health of our astronauts and allow them to do great science. That’s going to require a massive investment in new technology to shield the astronauts from coronal mass ejections and the constant threat of cosmic radiation. And that can be done, but NASA’s not making those investments.