Exploring space not only consider Mars as a possible abode for alien life liquid oceans under the ice trapped by the ice, there are some other moons in the Solar system. Chris McKay, for example, is in love with Mars. This red, dusty, eaten away by rust the world is not so attractive, what could be once, but still.
“I was obsessed with life on Mars for many years,” recognizes a planetary scientist for NASA, who has spent most of his career in search of signs of life on the red planet, the BBC. “This is temptation of the highest level. I refuse my first love and go to the other, which showed me that I wanted to see.”
A new object of affection McKay is Enceladus, a moon of Saturn covered with ice. The analyzed space by NASA and European space Agency Cassini, the satellite is spewing jets of water from the South pole — probably a liquid ocean several kilometers below the surface. Cassini found that this water contains all the vital ingredients: carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen.
“I think that’s it,” says McKay. “From the point of view of astrobiology is extremely entertaining story.”
But Cassini has only a few weeks before he met his death in the atmosphere of Saturn. “We have to fly through this trail in search of life,” he says. “We have developed a new mission specifically for this, to fly low and slow through the plume, collect samples, and find evidence of life.”
The proposed mission is currently competing at NASA with five other future missions to comets, asteroids and planets. “Now we have the opportunity to compete, says McKay. — But the story is damn good: we’re going to find life, and you? I think we win in this contest, because the goal is extremely attractive.”
Enceladus, however, is just one of several ice-covered worlds of the Solar system with liquid water and, possibly, microscopic life. Other candidates include three moons of Jupiter: Europe, Callisto and Ganymede. Even the distant moon of Neptune, Triton could be suitable for habitation.
Europe, perhaps, is the most famous goal for the study. In the 1960-ies, astronomers assumed that the moon can be a life. Arthur C. Clarke imagined her plants growing under the ice. Monitoring probe “Galileo” in the late 1990-ies showed that Europa has an ocean of water 15-20 km depth beneath the cracked icy crust on the surface. Can also be areas where lake water enclosed in the trap of ice only a few kilometers away.
And although we can wait for decades before going on Enceladus, Europe will soon be thoroughly explored. ESA is building the spacecraft, known as the JUICE — Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer. In 2022, the probe will be launched to Jupiter with the purpose of detailed study of Europe, Ganymede and Callisto.
NASA also plans to send in the middle of the 2020-ies the mission Europa Clipper. This robotic probe will have to fly around Europe about 40 times. Meanwhile, in the jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena engineers are already working on the next step: designing a landing modules and systems sampling on these icy worlds.
In frozen conditions it is extremely difficult to work with. Besides the remote control, a serious problem will have one attempt to break through several miles of ice to liquid. NASA is considering launching options landing missions, which ultimately will drill the ice to collect samples. While this problem is not solved, but at the JPL employs a lot of smart people.
Team McKay is considering a variety of concepts, including Europort and anchor systems that will use the heated prongs to hold the tools on the ice. Technology samples from below the surface include the robot on a fusion item that can “leak” through the crust. Another project is the drill that will cut into the ice and return the samples in the tube for analysis.
At the moment scientists have some prototypes in the lab, but before the start of the mission for another 15-20 years, so there will be other suggestions. Working solution yet, but the time to search for them — completely. To find any life, even the tiny, once considered dead satellites will definitely be one of the most sensational discoveries of all time. This will mean that life in the Universe very much.
“Extraordinary hypotheses require extraordinary evidence,” says McKay. “In my opinion, there is no more extraordinary hypothesis than the existence of life in another world — the second Genesis”.
Another life: in search of a second Genesis in the Solar system
Ilya Hel