Space post - Saturn's Enceladus moon hides 'great lake' of water

[Legion2213]

The evidence for an "ocean" of water under the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus appears to be overwhelming. The little world has excited scientists ever since jets of icy material were seen squirting into space from a striped region at its south pole. Now, exquisite measurements using Nasa's Cassini probe as it flew over the moon have allowed researchers to detect the water's gravitational signal. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26872184 Another candidate for life in our own solar system...if we can get to these places and even find the most simple microbes, it will be incredible to think a bit further about how the Universe could be absolutely teeming with life (simple life, but life). Hurry up and invent some kind of FTL you lazy science bods! We need to get out there and start nosing around!

[Neil]

I so want to see a mission to one of these oceans in my life time, with the hope of seeing some simple life forms in them... But given the current rate of progress I fear I will not

[Legion2213]

I so want to see a mission to one of these oceans in my life time, with the hope of seeing some simple life forms in them... But given the current rate of progress I fear I will not Big undertaking, we'd basically have to send little autonomous subs and find a way through the ice in order to get them in the water once we've got them there. But yeah, I live for the day that we start doing really advanced "aggressive" exploring of our solar system like this.

[Neil]

Big undertaking, we'd basically have to send little autonomous subs and find a way through the ice in order to get them in the water once we've got them there. But yeah, I live for the day that we start doing really advanced "aggressive" exploring of our solar system like this. Well, us being similar'ish ages, I fear we won't actually live to see that day You can only imagine what we could achieve if we really wanted to, but with NASA's budget being cut all the time that doesn't help If I recall the US spends more on its military each year than its spent on NASA in its entire history.