May 27, 2015 11:50 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

NASA's plan to send an unmanned spacecraft to Jupiter's moon Europa took an important step forward, unveiling the instruments that will be aboard the robot.

According to CBS News, the tools selected will look to sample the massive sub-surface ocean believed to be hidden under the moon's icy exterior. Of the 33 proposed, NASA chose nine.

NASA will be looking to see if the water can support life rather than searching for signs of life that already exist on Europa.

"Europa has tantalized us with its enigmatic icy surface and evidence of a vast ocean, following the amazing data from 11 flybys of the Galileo spacecraft over a decade ago and recent Hubble observations suggesting plumes of water shooting out from the moon," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a press release. "We're excited about the potential of this new mission and these instruments to unravel the mysteries of Europa in our quest to find evidence of life beyond Earth."

Europa was first discovered in 1610 thanks to Galileo, so naturally NASA's first spacecraft to photograph the moon in the 1990s shared the name. NASA does not yet have a name for the spacecraft that will go to Europa some time in the 2020s. Recent photos of Europa have also shown what appear to be geysers, further evidence of some sort of sub-surface body of water.

"What interests me the most is getting a close-up look at Europa's surface, in particular, chaos regions and bands, which may be sites of surface/sub-surface exchange," Amy Barr Mlinar, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, said in a press release. "There were a lot of unanswered questions after the Galileo mission, and we have waited a long time to start planning a return visit."

You can learn more about the nine instruments selected HERE.

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