Europa may be headed to Saturn’s moon Enceladus to search for life, according to a new report from planetary scientists planning a future large-class mission to the outer solar system.
European Space Agency (ESA) is showing significant foresight with its “Voyager 2050” program, which describes scientific goals and missions for the middle of this century. Its overarching theme is “the moons of the earth.” solar system“ It was selected in 2021, and now an expert report has suggested that Enceladus should be the primary target.
Enceladus It is an icy moon that is 309 miles wide (498 kilometers). Saturn. In 2006, Cassini mission He discovered that giant clouds of water vapor were emitted from deep cracks in the surface called “tiger stripes” located near the south pole of Enceladus. Feathers are the result of Saturn gravity It stretches and squeezes Enceladus’ internal organs like putty, injecting energy into them moonIts interior keeps water in liquid form in a global ocean and periodically squirts some of that water out between tiger stripes, like squeezing water from a bottle.
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ESA convened a panel of 12 planetary scientists from across Europe, chaired by Zita Martins, an astrobiologist at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, to evaluate the science that could be gained by venturing into Saturn’s other moon, Enceladus. Titan or Jupiter ocean moon Europe. Meanwhile, engineers at ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) explored what kind of mission would be most realistic given current and near-future technologies.
“The search for habitable conditions and traces of life in the solar system is challenging but very exciting from a science and technology perspective,” Martins said. press release.
In both scientific and technological terms, Enceladus came out on top, followed by Titan and then Europa.
Enceladus has all the necessary ingredients for a potentially habitable environment. Liquid water – check. Organic molecules – check. a source chemical energy to fuel life – check.
The report recommends that a mission to Enceladus (or Titan) consist of both an orbiter and a lander. They would be launched separately Ariane 6 rockets and then meeting Soil In orbit before heading to Saturn. Once there, they would make several flybys to other moons of Saturn that might harbor oceans. Dion, mimas And rheaBefore Enceladus or Titan approach their targets.
If Enceladus is selected, the lander will land near the tiger stripes in the south polar region and collect ocean samples from snow clouds falling back to the surface. Alternatively, if ESA wanted to give up the lander for budget reasons, the orbiter could fly through the clouds and sample the material that way. This has been done before with the Cassini spacecraft. Although Cassini does not have instruments that can detect life Did you find organic molecules? from the ocean inside the feathers.
As part of the Titan mission, the lander will focus on landing in an empty lake bed seasonally filled with liquid hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane and sampling the sediments there. However, entering low Titan orbit, where an orbiter would also sample the Moon’s upper atmosphere, is challenging due to the significant amount of delta-v (velocity change) required; This requires a more complex spacecraft with more fuel reserves, which in turn requires more fuel reserves. mass at launch.
It is also worth noting that NASA is currently developing a mission to Titan, namely a quadcopter called Dragonfly. Launch in 2028 to explore the sky and surface of the big moon. And while Titan certainly has the organic chemistry that could assemble the building blocks of life, recent research has questioned the moon’s astrobiological potential. not enough organic matter it would reach the underground ocean from the surface.
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European Clipper This vehicle, which will explode in October 2024, will now maximize the science that can be done from close flights over Europe. A lander would be needed to significantly advance the science that could be done on Europa, but estimates put the lifetime of any lander on the irradiated surface of Europa at just 10 days using current radiation shielding technology. Both ESA’s scientific and CDF panels have concluded that such a mission is not currently possible. time.
If ESA is able to pull off an Enceladus mission, it would be a huge and potentially history-making achievement, depending on what it finds.
“There has never before been a survey of signs of past or present life around Saturn,” said Carole Mundell, ESA’s director of science. “This will ensure ESA’s leadership in planetary science for decades to come.”
full report It can be found on the European Space Agency’s website.