NASA discussing possible life-hunting mission to Enceladus

 

The hunt for alien life could be centered on not one, but two gas giant satellites over the next decade, as NASA is reportedly considering sending a spacecraft to Saturn’s moon Enceladus to go along with a previously-announced mission to Jupiter’s satellite, Europa.

According to Space.com, the US space agency is planning to launch a spacecraft to Europa in the early- to mid-2020s, and is currently mulling over a proposal that would launch the Enceladus Life Finder (ELF) to study Saturn’s icy moon by the end of 2021.

ELF is one of approximately two-dozen concepts submitted to NASA earlier this year through its Discovery Program, an initiative created as a way to send low-cost, focused science missions to a variety of destinations throughout the solar system. Finalists will be selected later this month and the overall winner will be announced in September 2016, the website said.

Probe would search for amino acids, other signs of life

Along with Europa, Enceladus is believed to be one of the most likely candidates to be home to alien life, as both moons possess liquid water beneath an icy surface. Members of the ELF team told Space.com that they believe their proposal is a strong candidate to win the competition.

“We think we have the highest chance of success of getting an indicator of [alien] life for really any mission at this point,” principal investigator Jonathan Lunine of Cornell University said. It would be equipped with two mass spectrometers (one to study gaseous plume molecules and one focusing on solid grains) in search of amino acids, fatty acids, methane, and other molecules.

In addition, it would collect samples from geysers of water ice, salts, and carbon-filled organic molecules emitting from the moon’s south polar region. Those jets, which were first discovered by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005, are powered by Saturn’s gravity and reach far out into space. Scientists believe they may be in contact with Enceladus’ underground ocean.

The ELF probe would collect “free samples” from these geysers, Lunine said, giving them the opportunity to see if there are signs of life in the underground ocean without needing to land or drill. Positive results for all three substances it will be searching for would “strongly argue for life within Enceladus,” the ELF team said.

Solar-powered spacecraft would be ready by 2020

In addition, Lunine told Space.com that a fourth test for life may be possible. Currently, the mission plans for a technology demonstration involving an instrument that will determine the chilarlity or “handedness” of amino acids. Earth-based life uses left-handed amino acids instead of right-handed ones, and similar results on Enceladus could be indicative of alien life.

If selected, the ELF mission will have a cost ceiling of $450 million, not counting post-launch operations, and will be ready to fly by the year 2020. As things currently stand, it would launch by 2021 and would take 9.5 years to reach Saturn. Once there, it would enter orbit around the planet and fly through the moon’s plumes up to 10 times over a three-year span.

ELF would be solar-powered, and would be the first spacecraft of its kind to operate at a place as far away from the Sun as Saturn. Lunine explained that his team is confident that the solar-power tech is up to the task, telling the website that it is “a very feasible way to conduct the mission.”

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Feature image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute