NASA Has New Toys Too

Throughout the past few years, everyone has been asking the same question. ‘Is there life on Mars?’ But it seems NASA is taking initiative, but on a huge body of water on the moon of Saturn’s surface. This ocean was discovered recently by the Cassini space probe and named the Kraken Mare. This should be one hell of a job for a submarine. The ocean has a reported size of 400,000km2. But with NASA recently finding the perfect automated submarine for this job, the plan seems to have been given the green light.

I know you might be sat thinking, what’s so great about the Kraken Mare? What would make them want to explore it? Well, it is the only location in our solar system where surface liquids have been found. It holds a much higher chance of alien life. But the fact that the rivers & lakes on the moon are all mixed with methane & ethane means that if aliens are living in on the moon, they must either be very strong or must have evolved to be tolerant of the gases.

What’s the plan?

The plan is to have the submarine land in the most northern part of the ocean. This would allow NASA to get as much information as possible about the inner workings of the moon.

A website for the mission by NASA goes into detail about the mission. It’s on a scale which has never been attempted before. The statement for the mission reads:

“This investigation represents a significant advancement in our understanding of the history and evolution of organic compounds in the solar system and hence a critical step along the path to understanding the evolution of life here on Earth and potential life elsewhere in the galaxy.” _­­­­

The project is an ambitious and huge risk. But even though it will require the utmost major planning, NASA have confirmed that they wish to get the mission started within the next 20 years. They will need to calculate how to get the sub to Titan which is an astonishing 1.4 billion km away. Which to put it on context is 3,500 times as long as the journey to the moon or 300,000 trips from LA to New York.