A lander mission to probe subglacial water on Saturn׳s moon Enceladus for life

Konstantinidis, Konstantinos; Martinez, Claudio L. Flores; Dachwald, Bernd; Ohndorf, Andreas; Dykta, Paul; Bowitz, Pascal; Rudolph, Martin; Digel, Ilya; Kowalski, Julia; Voigt, Konstantin; Förstner, Roger

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2014.09.012

Cited by 70 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Direct exploration and in situ analysis of those regions requires advanced accessing technologies [3]. One possible mission scenario is detailed in [8] and relies on a maneuverable melting probe such as the IceMole (IM). The IM has been developed at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences since 2008 and has already been applied in several field tests on terrestrial glaciers in the European Alps, on Iceland and in Antarctica [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curvilinear melting – A preliminary experimental and numerical study

Schüller

Kowalski

Råback

2016

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curvilinear melting – A preliminary experimental and numerical study

Schüller

Kowalski

Råback

2016

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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“…Future planetary exploration missions and spectroscopic exoplanet surveys will be limited due to a maximum volume available for scientific payload and highly sought-after observation time. Dedicated astrobiological space exploration is therefore dependent on a selection of previously chosen indicators for the presence of extraterrestrial life [61]. More precisely, these indicators could be termed convergent biosignatures, as the mentioned instrumentation will scan for markers analogous to phenomena observed in terrestrial biota [2].…”

Section: Minimal Convergent Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent evolution and the search for biosignatures within the solar system and beyond

Martinez

2015

Acta Astronautica

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“…The latter is in particular the case for further away destinations, such as missions to the outer solar system. Typically examples of past and future missions are here the Voyager crafts [1], the Europa Clipper [2] and missions searching for life in the subglacial waters of ice moons [3]. Is there however a maximal planning horizon societies would be willing to support?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why planetary and exoplanetary protection differ: The case of long duration genesis missions to habitable but sterile M-dwarf oxygen planets

Gros

2019

Acta Astronautica

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Time is arguably the key limiting factor for interstellar exploration. At high speeds, flyby missions to nearby stars by laser propelled wafersats taking 50-100 years would be feasible. Directed energy launch systems could accelerate on the other side also crafts weighing several tons to cruising speeds of the order of 1000 km/s (c/300). At these speeds, superconducting magnetic sails would be able to decelerate the craft by transferring kinetic energy to the protons of the interstellar medium. A tantalizing perspective, which would allow interstellar probes to stop whenever time is not a limiting factor. Prime candidates are in this respect Genesis probes, that is missions aiming to offer terrestrial life new evolutionary pathways on potentially habitable but hitherto barren exoplanets.Genesis missions raise important ethical issues, in particular with regard to planetary protection. Here we argue that exoplanetary and planetary protection differ qualitatively as a result of the vastly different cruising times for payload delivering probes, which are of the order of millennia for interstellar probes, but only of years for solar system bodies. Furthermore we point out that our galaxy may harbor a large number of habitable exoplanets, M-dwarf planets, which could be sterile due to the presence of massive primordial oxygen atmospheres. We believe that the prospect terrestrial life has in our galaxy would shift on a fundamental level in case that the existence of this type of habitable but sterile oxygen planets will be corroborated by future research. It may also explain why our sun is not a M dwarf, the most common star type, but a medium-sized G-class star.

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A lander mission to probe subglacial water on Saturn׳s moon Enceladus for life

Cited by 70 publications

References 73 publications

Curvilinear melting – A preliminary experimental and numerical study

Curvilinear melting – A preliminary experimental and numerical study

Convergent evolution and the search for biosignatures within the solar system and beyond

Why planetary and exoplanetary protection differ: The case of long duration genesis missions to habitable but sterile M-dwarf oxygen planets

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