Venture Europa Incident
The Venture Europa Incident was a spaceborne incident that took place on January 15, 2050. The spacecraft Venture Europa, operated by the private firm EuropExplore, suddenly lost communication with Earth from the surface of Europa, an ice moon of Jupiter. Communications were briefly restored several hours after they were lost, but EuropExplore has refused to comment on what any transmissions received were. To this day, the incident remains popular in conspiracy theory circles as "proof" of alien life.
The Venture Europa spacecraft was launched from French Guiana in 2044, as a privately-owned and operated exploration probe. After a five-year flight, the craft landed on the moon of Jupiter and began drilling through the ice in an attempt to reach the moon's subsurface ocean. A breakthrough was achieved after four months. However, several minutes after a camera was deployed beneath the ice, communications were lost with the Venture Europa. EuropExplore was able to restore communications approximately eighteen hours later, but only for a short (and undisclosed) period of time. In a final report on the incident, they determined that the drill had created weak points in the ice that cause the lander to sink and flip over, critically damaging most of its communications and science equipment.
However, the reluctance of EuropExplore to release the alleged twenty-seven minutes of video that was received after communications were restored has created a raft of conspiracy theories about the incident. The most popular theory is that the video shows alien life in Europa's subsurface ocean, and it was covered up by various entities (usually the United States or European Union governments) to prevent the public from obtaining this knowledge. Another, somewhat less popular theory is that the Venture Europa never left Earth, and instead was providing livestreamed footage from a movie set or Antarctica. The theory alleges that the feed was cut due to some issue with the set, causing them to wrap up filming.
The Venture Europa spacecraft was launched from French Guiana in 2044, as a privately-owned and operated exploration probe. After a five-year flight, the craft landed on the moon of Jupiter and began drilling through the ice in an attempt to reach the moon's subsurface ocean. A breakthrough was achieved after four months. However, several minutes after a camera was deployed beneath the ice, communications were lost with the Venture Europa. EuropExplore was able to restore communications approximately eighteen hours later, but only for a short (and undisclosed) period of time. In a final report on the incident, they determined that the drill had created weak points in the ice that cause the lander to sink and flip over, critically damaging most of its communications and science equipment.
However, the reluctance of EuropExplore to release the alleged twenty-seven minutes of video that was received after communications were restored has created a raft of conspiracy theories about the incident. The most popular theory is that the video shows alien life in Europa's subsurface ocean, and it was covered up by various entities (usually the United States or European Union governments) to prevent the public from obtaining this knowledge. Another, somewhat less popular theory is that the Venture Europa never left Earth, and instead was providing livestreamed footage from a movie set or Antarctica. The theory alleges that the feed was cut due to some issue with the set, causing them to wrap up filming.
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