Cassini imaging scientists used views like this one to help them identify the source locations for individual jets spurting ice particles, water vapor and trace organic compounds from the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL
The discovery of plumes at worlds like Enceladus raises an intriguing question about how best to explore these small, icy bodies. In a recent presentation called “Europa and beyond: Adaptive robotic exploration of planetary plumes,” Nathalie Cabrol of the SETI Institute described a ‘Swiss army knife’ approach in developing instruments and exploration strategies for icy moons in the Solar System, and any plumes that might be erupting from their surfaces. The key to success could be intelligent and adaptable robots that can accumulate enough data to learn what is normal and what is not normal in the environment around them.
Cabrol presented the abstract in February at the “Workshop on the Potential for Finding Life in a Europa Plume,” held at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California and co-hosted by the NASA Astrobiology Institute and the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute.