[Baps] TODAY — MIT Planetary Lunch @ 12:30 — Dr. Shannon MacKenzie (APL)

[Jason Soderblom]

Planetary Lunch Seminar – Dr. Shannon MacKenzie (APL)

TODAY February 15th @ 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm | Room 54-1623 and Zoom<https://mit.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=670cb5a948f483912d2279794&id=1469cdb450&e=d9d1f94bcc>


Title: Enceladus Orbilander: What might the search for evidence of life look like in the next decade?

Abstract: Cassini revealed Saturn’s moon Enceladus as the host of a subsurface ocean where the key factors of habitability appear to be collocated. A return mission is needed to determine if that habitability potential supports life, but how should such a search for life be conducted? What biosignatures might we target? What geochemical and geophysical investigations would provide the context most useful for interpreting biosignature searches?  In preparation for the 2023‐2032 Decadal Survey, we explored what Flagship‐class (>$2B) missions answering these questions might look like.  In this talk, I’ll describe how we defined the driving science goals and objectives, selected a representative payload, and evaluated the science value of different architectures. I’ll then present the result of our study, Orbilander, a mission concept where a single spacecraft first orbited and then landed, and why it represents a compelling option for returning to Enceladus to search for life.


Best regards,
Jason & the rest of the PLS organizing committee

P.S. Code to get into the Zoom meetings Green915
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/baps/attachments/20220215/95e1829b/attachment.htm>