Thank you for your answers.
People are their principles.
The same reason why in Star Trek II project Genesis needed a dead planet. They didn't want to destroy the chance of life eventually evolving.
shareI know the answer is crystal clear to fans of both movies, but to those casual viewers who may have only seen this movie once (and maybe not even seen its prequel, 2001:A Space Odyssey), the reason Europa is off limits is because of the Monolith you see there at the end of the movie.
In the beginning of 2001 you see the Monolith at the "Dawn of Man" on Earth, depicting the moment our ape ancestors learned how to use tools, implying the Monolith somehow imbued that knowledge onto them. The same thing with the Europan Monolith: it will somehow trigger sentient life to grow there, and thus it should be avoided by human meddling.
All the more reason why I advocate for a remake of 2001 and 2010 into one movie! :-)
I figured it was a Cold War reference with Europe possibly being the battlefield between the Soviet Union and the US.
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