The US can jumpstart the search for life on this moon of Saturn 

With the recent discovery of traces of what may or may not be or have been life on Mars, eyes are turning to another world in the solar system which might harbor extraterrestrial life. Old data from the Cassini probe suggests that Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus should be of interest for astrobiologists.

According to Space.com, Cassini, while flying through the residue of water shot out through fissures called “tiger stripes” in Enceladus’s icy “E-ring” exterior, discovered organic molecules, including “precursors for amino acids.”

As with all such announcements of life on other worlds, the inevitable caveat: “It had been unclear whether the organic molecules present in the ring had come from Enceladus' ocean or whether they had been formed by the reactions triggered by the radiation.”

However, Cassini sampled some of the water plumes directly. The same organic molecules, unaffected by radiation, were present. These findings suggest that the warm water ocean beneath the icy surface of Enceladus may well contain extraterrestrial life. However, yet another caveat arose.

Research suggests the possibility that “the bombardment of radiation that scientists had been so concerned had altered the material in the E-ring can also create organic molecules on the surface of Enceladus.” The molecules would then be pushed out into space by the plumes.

With the issue of life on Enceladus now a burning question, thoughts arise as to how to confirm it. The European Space Agency has proposed a mission that would consist of an orbiter and a lander to be launched on two Ariane 6 rockets. The two would dock in low Earth orbit before proceeding on to Enceladus. The probe would explore Enceladus and other moons of Saturn, collect more plume material and eventually attempt a landing.

Unfortunately, the European Space Agency proposal envisions a launch in 2042, with arrival in Saturn space in 2054 and an Enceladus landing in 2058. Many of the scientists who would be analyzing the data returned from the icy moon of Saturn have not even been born. No one can predict the fiscal and technological environment that will exist decades from now.

Could NASA and some commercial partners mount a life-seeking expedition to Enceladus? The Space Agency is studying a concept called the Enceladus Orbilander. It is proposed to launch in 2038.

The U.S. has or soon will have some capabilities that the Europeans lack for such a mission. The SpaceX Starship is first and foremost on that list. When operational, it will be able to loft in excess of 100 metric tons into low Earth orbit. That’s a lot of mass for an Enceladus probe to work with.

The next element of the Enceladus mission should be a direct fusion drive, a concept being studied by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Use of a direct fusion drive would cut the trip time to Saturn from just under seven years, as with Cassini, to around two years. The technology places Enceladus and another moon of Saturn, Titan, within easy reach.

Finally, the probe itself, an orbiter and a lander. Both would likely be powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators similar to the ones that have been used by a variety of deep space probes, including Cassini.

Such an undertaking would be expensive, on the order of a NASA flagship mission. But the returns, both in science and technology development, would make it worth it,

Scientists who are tasked with searching for extraterrestrial life have focused on Mars. Recently, scientists announced the discovery of biosignatures found by the Mars Perseverance that may or may not indicate life on the Red Planet.

But Enceladus, along with Europa — another ice-shrouded world thought to harbor an interior warm water ocean orbiting Jupiter — may be a better target for finding life beyond the Earth. An ocean, warmed by tidal forces, would seem to be more hospitable than beneath the barren, radiation blasted soil of Mars.

One other advantage to searching for extraterrestrial life on an icy moon like Enceladus is the fact that no one is going to want to visit one, not to mention live there, any time soon. The fact makes Enceladus a better target than Mars since both NASA and SpaceX’s Elon Musk want to send people to the Red Planet, eventually to establish a settlement. 

There would be no conflict between human spaceflight advocates and scientists keen to protect an alien world from contamination by microbe infested humans.

The first discovery of alien life may not be on Mars, but rather beneath the surface of an icy moon like Enceladus.

Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.