Breakthrough Enceladus mission
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Breakthrough Enceladusis a proposed privately fundedastrobiologymission byBreakthrough Initiativesfounded byYuri Milner.[1]Its aim is to assess the possibility of life onSaturn's moonEnceladus.[2][3]NASA will be “providing expert reviewers and feedback on their design".Corey S. Powell,editor-in-chief ofDiscovermagazine, reporting forNBC Newsstated that the mission was particularly notable as it would "rewrite the rules of space exploration," being potentially the first to find proof of complex life in the solar system, as it is "riskier than anything NASA would attempt on its own."[1]
Christopher McKay,a planetary scientist, atNASA Ames Research Centerhas compared Breakthrough Enceladus toMagellan’scircumnavigation of the globe, andRichard Byrd’s pole expeditions, that "would create a new paradigm for exploration.”[1]
The privately funded probe is estimated to take a decade to build and cost $60 million, while a NASA government funded approach could take over two decades and cost 15 times as much.[1]On 13 September 2018,Thomas ZurbuchenofNASAsigned a Pre-Phase A partnership agreement, with Breakthrough Prize Foundation's chairmanPete Wordento jointly create the mission concept and plan.[4][5]
The mission is the first privately funded deep space mission,[6]and if launched as planned prior toNew FrontiersOcean Worlds andEuropa Clipper,it has the potential to be the first to discover the existence of ocean dwellingextra-terrestrial life.[7]
The flyby mission proposes to search for microbes in the plumes of water that are being ejected fromEnceladus's warm ocean,veiled under a layer of ice crust on its south pole.[8]According to a study published inGeophysical Research Letters,Enceladus's ice crust is believed to be two to five kilometers thick,[9](thinner thanEuropa's ice layer, estimated to be 19 to 25 kilometers thick), and could permit a probe to useice-penetrating radar,to investigate the contents of the Enceladian ocean.[10]
References[edit]
- ^abcdPowell, Corey S. (December 19, 2018)."Billionaire aims to jump-start search for alien life and rewrite rules of space exploration".NBC News.Retrieved2019-02-17.
- ^"Private mission may get us back to Enceladus sooner than NASA".New Scientist.22 November 2017.Retrieved2019-02-17.
- ^Anderson, Paul Scott (November 27, 2018)."A billionaire's plan to search for life on Enceladus".EarthSky.Retrieved2019-02-17.
- ^Mandelbaum, Ryan F. (November 8, 2018)."Report: NASA and Yuri Milner Working Together on Life-Hunting Mission to Enceladus".Gizmodo.Retrieved2019-02-17.
- ^Foust, Jeff (November 9, 2018)."NASA to support initial studies of privately funded Enceladus mission".SpaceNews.Retrieved2019-02-17.
- ^Harris, Mark (November 8, 2018)."NASA is giving advice to Yuri Milner's private mission to Enceladus".New Scientist.Retrieved2019-02-17.
The first private mission to deep space is gathering momentum.
- ^Paoletta, Rae (November 13, 2017)."A Russian Billionaire Wants to Search for Alien Life on Enceladus".Inverse.Retrieved2019-02-17.
- ^Wall, Mike (November 9, 2018)."Billionaire Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Initiatives Eyes Private Mission to Seek Alien Life".Space.Retrieved2019-02-17.
Breakthrough Initiatives was investigating the feasibility of launching a probe that would look for signs of life in the plume of water vapor and other material wafting from Enceladus' south polar region.
- ^Deatrick, Elizabeth (June 21, 2016)."Saturn moon Enceladus' ice shell likely thinner than expected".GeoSpace.Retrieved2019-02-17.
- ^Čadek, Ondřej; Tobie, Gabriel; Van Hoolst, Tim; et al. (2016)."Enceladus's internal ocean and ice shell constrained from Cassini gravity, shape, and libration data".Geophysical Research Letters.43(11): 5653–5660.Bibcode:2016GeoRL..43.5653C.doi:10.1002/2016GL068634.ISSN1944-8007.
External links[edit]
Breakthrough NASA signed agreement
