Just to elaborate a bit on artfuldodger's node, the node title is from 2010, by Arthur C. Clarke. In 2010, it is found that there is an overarching consciousness overlooking life. Because there is the potential for Europa to develop its own indigenous life, especially if Jupiter were to become a small star, humankind is told to stay away from it by this consciousness. Of course, humankind doesn't pay much attention of course, despite the fact that humanity is given the rest of the satellites of Jupiter to play with.

Dave Bowman's (well, sort of Dave Bowman's) last message was "All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there."

Humankind DID pay attention to the warning. After it was sent, we only sent probes into Europa's atmosphere, which were usually destroyed before they got close enough to the planet's surface to interfere with its life. Later, a spaceship had to make an emergency landing on Europa due to a crazy person with a gun taking over the ship, and the second and last intentional human landing on Europa was the rescue of that ship. The first was a Chinese expedition, in 2010. It was destroyed by one of Europa's unique fauna (or maybe flora).

The first writeup in here said something like "Sending this message guarantees that humans will try to land on Europa the first chance they get," which really sells short Clarke's depiction of humans in general as being mostly smart and reasonable.

In 3001: Final Odyssey the resurrected Frank Poole goes to Europa and is allowed to land by Dave Bowman, who can sometimes overide the Monolith. Dave passes on what he knows about the Monolith and everything is happy....

If you don't want to know what happens next GOE AWAY

Later Frank learns through Dave that there is a possibility the Monolith is being sent instructions to terminate the experiment on Earth and concentrate on the Europans. The experiment in question is mankind. Frank Poole then returns to Europa again to recover the memory device Dave and Hal escaped to after helping mankind destroy the Monolith by infecting it with the most destructive computer viruses ever made.

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