Details of a proposed mission to Jupiter and its moons to search for hints of life have been announced by NASA scientists. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) will be the first spacecraft to be powered by a uranium nuclear reactor. NASA plans to launch the vessel after 2011 to sniff out life or its potential toeholds on Jupiter and three of its moons. JIMO will also be the largest spacecraft ever sent to the outer Solar System, and the first in a series of nuclear-powered spacecraft that form “Project Prometheus,” a programme NASA initiated earlier in 2003.