NASA News: 'Deepest Ever' Flyby to Be Conducted to Investigate Saturn's Enceladus Habitability
In what could be the biggest mission of NASA's Cassini, the spacecraft will be hovering over Saturn's moon Enceladus to find out if humans can inhabit the area in the future.
According to a report by ABC Online, the mission will be Cassini's first attempt to explore the moon in a very close distance as NASA said the spacecraft will be flying only 49 kilometers above Enceladus' south pole.
While system engineer Morgan Cable clarified that the flyby isn't meant to check out life in the moon, it will determine if the south pole area that was discovered last month made up of a plume of ice could possibly be habitable.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"Cassini was never designed to look for life, but it does have powerful instruments that can be used to look for habitability," Cable said.
The mission comes after Cassini also discovered that the global ocean south of Enceladus' icy surface was spraying water vapor and organic molecules into its atmosphere, which are indications that the conditions in the moon could mean life.
Cable noted that life basically needs three things to be born. The three are water, chemistry, and energy. The engineer noted that Cassini's finding is an implication that Enceladus contains three of the basic necessities for possible life in its surface.
Aside from looking into the other organic molecules that Enceladus is emitting into space, Cassini will also be tasked to look closer at the plume to further determine how long the moon has been active.
Cassini has been exploring Enceladus since last year after it was launched in 1997 and was able to reach Saturn's orbit in 2004, and this Christmas, it will be embarking on the flyby that will most likely make history if ever NASA proves that Enceladus' surface is suitable for man to inhabit.
Meanwhile, NASA warns astronauts to be careful when engaging in missions associated with the International Space Station as it has been found to house a massive amount of bacterial pathogens.
According to The Telegraph, the ISS is full of infectious germs that could lead to inflammations and skin irritations as the station has become a breeding ground for the pathogens commonly found on Earth.
