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BBC - Future - The search for the Solar

Systems most likely place for life
Richard Hollingham
6-8 minutes

Chris McKay has fallen out of love with Mars. The red, dusty,
corroded world no longer holds the allure it once did.

I was obsessed with life on Mars for many years, confesses the
Nasa planetary scientist, who has spent most of his career
searching for signs of life on the red planet.

Its seduction at the highest level, he says. Im abandoning my first

love and going after this other one thats shown me what I wanted to
see.

The new object of McKays affections is Enceladus, the ice-

encrusted moon of Saturn. Investigated by the joint Nasa and
European Space Agency (Esa) Cassini space probe, the moon is
spewing out plumes of water from its south pole most likely from a
liquid ocean several kilometres beneath the surface. Cassini has
found this water contains all the vital ingredients for life as we know
it: carbon, nitrogen and a readily available source of energy in the
form of hydrogen.

I think this is it, says McKay. From an astrobiology point of view,

this is the most interesting story.

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But Cassini only has a few weeks left before it plunges to its death in
Saturns atmosphere. We should be flying through that plume
searching for life, he says. We have developed a new mission to
do that, a mission that will fly low and slow through the plume,
collect a huge sample and search for evidence of life.

This proposed mission is currently in competition for Nasa funds

with five other future missions to comets, asteroids and planets.
Right now we have an opportunity to compete, says McKay. But I
think weve got a damned good story: were going to find life, what
are you going to find? Im optimistic that well win the competition
because its such a compelling target.

As far back as the 1960s, astronomers theorised that the moon

might harbour life

Enceladus, however, is just one of several ice-covered worlds in the

Solar System with liquid water and possibly microscopic life. Other
candidates include three of Jupiters moons: Europa, Callisto and
Ganymede. Even the distant moon of Neptune, Triton, might be
habitable for extreme life.

Europa is perhaps the most well-known target for exploration. As far

back as the 1960s, astronomers theorised that the moon might
harbour life. Writer of the book 2001, Arthur C Clarke, even
imagined giant plants growing beneath the ice. Observations from
Nasas Galileo probe in the late 1990s proved Europa has an ocean
of water some 15-20km (9.3-12.5 miles) under a cracked icy surface
crust. There may also be areas where lakes of water are trapped
within the ice, only a few kilometres down.

While we may have to wait decades for a return to Enceladus,

Europa will soon be studied in detail. Esa is building a spacecraft

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known as Juice, which stands for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer
possibly the worst acronym in space exploration (I am reliably
informed the name was conceived late at night in a bar and may be
changed). Due for launch in 2022, the probe will orbit Jupiter and
make detailed studies of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Nasa is also planning its own mid-2020s mission, known as Europa

Clipper. This robotic space probe is designed to fly past Europa
some 40 times and make a detailed study of its surface.

Meanwhile, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena,

engineers are already working on the next step: designing robotic
landers and sampling systems for these icy worlds.

Icy moons are extremely challenging places to operate in, says

robotics engineer, Hari Nayar. Theyre cold, remote, rugged and
just getting to the liquid, through several kilometres of ice, is an
incredibly difficult challenge.

Finding any life however small on worlds once considered dead

moons, would be one of the most fundamental discoveries of all time

Nayar envisages a series of lander missions, culminating in a robot

that could drill through the ice to collect samples. We havent
completely solved that problem yet, he admits, but therere a lot of
smart people at JPL.

His team has developed a number of concepts, including a Europa

rover and an anchoring system that uses heated prongs to lock
instruments into the ice. Technologies to take samples from beneath
the surface include a nuclear-heated robot that could melt its way
through the crust. Another design employs a drill to cut through the
ice and shuttle samples back up a tube for analysis.

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At the moment, these devices are only at an early proof of concept
stage, and possibly best described as makeshift. Weve built some
prototypes in the lab but a mission is at least 15-20 years away,
says Nayar, I dont think we have a solution that Im sure will work
yet, but that gives us time to develop the missions.

Finding any life however small on worlds once considered dead

moons, would be one of the most fundamental discoveries of all
time. It would suggest that life is likely to be common throughout the
Universe.

There is, however, a big problem when it comes to searching for life
elsewhere in the galaxy: the people who are searching really, really
want to find it.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence Chris McKay,

Nasa

Its intrinsic to the search for life that you want the answer to be
yes, says McKay. Ive seen papers published making some
extraordinary claims, such as life on Mars or whatever, and theyre
based on a very selective or narrow interpretation of the data.

That means ensuring multiple samples are taken and that the
spacecraft is completely free of microbes, so any life sampled comes
from the icy moons rather than being introduced from Earth.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, McKay says.

To my mind there is no more extraordinary claim than we have
found life on another world a second genesis.

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