Billionaire teams up with NASA for mission to find life on Enceladus | Science | News



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The space agency is planning to offer help to California resident Mr Milner on the first private deep-space mission, a journey to the intriguing yet tiny moon, according to New Scientist magazine.

Agreements which have been signed by NASA and Milne's non-profit Breakthrough Starshot Foundation in September by New Scientist reveal the two organizations are working on scientific, technical and financial plans for the ambitious mission.

NASA has already committed more than £ 54,000 ($ 70,000) which will be spent on a concept study for a flyby mission.

Breakthrough will not be paid for cash – rather, the figure represents the agency's own staffing costs on the project.

The teams will be working on the project and concepts throughout the race of next year.

Saturn and Jupiter, which have emerged as important to life.

Europa, one of at least 69 moons orbiting Jupiter, is frequently cited as the best candidate for finding living organisms outside of our own planet, largely because of a huge sub-surface ocean.

The space agency is a multi-billion dollar mission planner to explore the planet in the next decade.

And Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons, which has a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, is sometimes said to be analagous to Earth's trillion years ago.

However, speaking at the 2018 National Geographic Explorers Festival in July, planetary scientist and NASA advisor Carolyn Porco said Enceladus was an even better candidate.

She explained: "I have a bias, and I do not deny that.

"But it's not so much an affair, it's a point of view based on the evidence.

"We simply know more about Enceladus.

"Really, the Europa people do not know that much.

"There is a lot of excitement, but it's speculation at this point. Of course I'd choose Enceladus. "

Like Europa, Enceladus, which measures just 310 miles (500km) across, has a subsurface ocean – and a study published in the scientific journal. moon was a suitable environment for life.

The Breakthrough Initiatives project is aimed at answering the biggest questions about space.

Its board includes Mr Milner, as well as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Stephen Hawking until his death in March.

Earth-like planets and planet-to-planet Earth-like planets.

New Scientist has reported the Breakthrough Foundation, not NASA, would be bankrolling the mission to Enceladus.

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