If you’ve been paying attention to the scientific search for extraterrestrial life you’ll already know that in recent months the frosty Saturn moon Enceladus is looking mighty tempting.
The ice-covered ocean world has a steamy hot center and plenty of life-giving water hidden beneath its thick layer of ice, and researchers have determined that if alien life does exist here in our own Solar System, Enceladus is probably our best bet at finding it.
Now, a fabulously wealthy Russian plans to beat NASA to the punch and launch a mission to explore Enceladus.
He recently announced his plans, which focus on examining the massive geysers which spew water from deep cracks on the moon’s souther pole, while noting that he believes he can do it well before NASA gets around to it.
At present, NASA has two potential missions on the table that would also focus on Enceladus, but funding is scarce, and the missions are competing against 10 others for a slice of the pie.
If NASA ever does send hardware to the icy moon, it’ll be a long while before that happens.
Milner hopes that his proposed mission could act as something of a supplementary effort to build up data about Enceladus before the space agency eventually gets around to checking it out. »