Breakthrough Enceladus mission
{{Short description|Astrobiology mission}}
{{Update|date=July 2022}}
Breakthrough Enceladus is a proposed privately funded astrobiology mission by Breakthrough Initiatives founded by Yuri Milner.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/billionaire-aims-jump-start-search-alien-life-rewrite-rules-space-ncna949311|title=Billionaire aims to jump-start search for alien life and rewrite rules of space exploration|website=NBC News |date=December 19, 2018 |first=Corey S. |last=Powell |language=en|access-date=2019-02-17}} Its aim is to assess the possibility of life on Saturn's moon Enceladus.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631533-900-private-mission-may-get-us-back-to-enceladus-sooner-than-nasa/|title=Private mission may get us back to Enceladus sooner than NASA|website=New Scientist |date=22 November 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-17}}{{Cite web|url=https://earthsky.org/space/billionaire-yuri-milner-nasa-plan-life-search-enceladus|title=A billionaire's plan to search for life on Enceladus |first=Paul Scott |last=Anderson |date=November 27, 2018 |website=EarthSky|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-17}} NASA will be “providing expert reviewers and feedback on their design". Corey S. Powell, editor-in-chief of Discover magazine, reporting for NBC News stated that the mission was particularly notable as it would "rewrite the rules of space exploration," being potentially the first to find proof of complex non-Earth life in the Solar System, as it is "riskier than anything NASA would attempt on its own."
File:PIA17144 – A Song of Ice and Light.jpg
Christopher McKay, a planetary scientist, at NASA Ames Research Center has compared Breakthrough Enceladus to Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, and Richard Byrd’s pole expeditions, that "would create a new paradigm for exploration.”
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. On 13 September 2018, Thomas Zurbuchen of NASA signed a Pre-Phase A partnership agreement, with Breakthrough Prize Foundation's chairman Pete Worden to jointly create the mission concept and plan.{{Cite web|url=https://gizmodo.com/report-nasa-and-yuri-milner-working-together-on-life-h-1830309201|title=Report: NASA and Yuri Milner Working Together on Life-Hunting Mission to Enceladus|last=Mandelbaum|first=Ryan F.|website=Gizmodo |date=November 8, 2018 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-17}}{{Cite web|url=https://spacenews.com/nasa-to-support-initial-studies-of-privately-funded-enceladus-mission/|title=NASA to support initial studies of privately funded Enceladus mission|first=Jeff |last=Foust |date=November 9, 2018 |website=SpaceNews|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-17}}
The mission is the first privately funded deep space mission,{{Cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2184863-nasa-is-giving-advice-to-yuri-milners-private-mission-to-enceladus/|title=NASA is giving advice to Yuri Milner's private mission to Enceladus|last=Harris|first=Mark|date=November 8, 2018 |website=New Scientist|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-17|quote=The first private mission to deep space is gathering momentum.}} and if launched as planned prior to New Frontiers Ocean Worlds and Europa Clipper, it has the potential to be the first to discover the existence of ocean dwelling extra-terrestrial life.{{Cite web|url=https://www.inverse.com/article/38379-russian-billionaire-yuri-milner-enceladus|title=A Russian Billionaire Wants to Search for Alien Life on Enceladus|last=Paoletta|first=Rae|website=Inverse |date=November 13, 2017 |language=en|access-date=2019-02-17}}
The flyby mission proposes to search for microbes in the plumes of water that are being ejected from Enceladus's warm ocean, veiled under a layer of ice crust on its south pole.{{Cite web|url=https://www.space.com/42384-breakthrough-initiatives-alien-life-search-mission.html|title=Billionaire Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Initiatives Eyes Private Mission to Seek Alien Life|last=Wall|first=Mike|website=Space.com |date=November 9, 2018 |language=en|access-date=2019-02-17|quote=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.}} According to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters, Enceladus's ice crust is believed to be two to five kilometers thick,{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2016/06/21/saturn-moon-enceladus-ice-shell-thinner-expected/|title=Saturn moon Enceladus' ice shell likely thinner than expected|date=June 21, 2016 |first=Elizabeth |last=Deatrick |website=GeoSpace|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-17}} (thinner than Europa's ice layer, estimated to be 19 to 25 kilometers thick), and could permit a probe to use ice-penetrating radar, to investigate the contents of the Enceladian ocean.{{Cite journal|last1=Čadek|first1=Ondřej|last2=Tobie|first2=Gabriel|last3=Van Hoolst|first3=Tim|last4=Massé|first4=Marion|last5=Choblet|first5=Gaël|last6=Lefèvre|first6=Axel|last7=Mitri|first7=Giuseppe|last8=Baland|first8=Rose-Marie|last9=Běhounková|first9=Marie |display-authors=3 |date=2016|title=Enceladus's internal ocean and ice shell constrained from Cassini gravity, shape, and libration data|journal=Geophysical Research Letters|language=en|volume=43|issue=11|pages=5653–5660|doi=10.1002/2016GL068634|bibcode=2016GeoRL..43.5653C |issn=1944-8007|doi-access=free}}
References
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External links
[https://www.nasa.gov/saa/domestic/26617_26617_Annex1_Brkthru_Encel_FullyExecuted.pdf Breakthrough NASA signed agreement]
{{Astrobiology}}
{{Extraterrestrial life}}
{{Saturn spacecraft}}