"As a first step, Pappalardo said, NASA should send an orbiter to Europa to determine the characteristics of its ice shell, confirm the existence of an ocean, and analyze the chemistry of what appears to be dark organic matter on the moon's surface.
"Later missions could include landers to search for life and potentially an underwater robot that could melt through surface ice to sample water below. 'But that's hard to do, and it's a long time off,' he said."
If I recall correctly, work has already begun on a telerobotic submarine for exploring Europa's hidden ocean. I can envision "drilling" a hole in the moon's ice using some sort of orbiting particle beam -- perhaps a Space Defense Initiative knock-off. Of course, by the time we get around to such ventures -- if we survive long enough -- something like the self-assembling nanotech Mars probe described in a previous post might be a more practical option.
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