Peter Doran on the first steps to seeking life
The surface of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, consists mostly of huge blocks of ice that have cracked and shifted about, suggesting that there may be an ocean of liquid water underneath. (Credit: NASA JPL)
Scientists are taking their first steps toward finding extraterrestial life on Jupiter’s moon Europa, thought to have a massive ocean of water underneath thousands of feet of ice.
An autonomous robotic submarine, called ENDURANCE, will be tested in 2008 under Antarctic ice, in the subglacial Lake Bonney, and later in Lake Vostok.
Peter Doran is principle investigator of the ENDURANCE robot. EarthSky’s Jorge Salazar spoke with Professor Doran at the a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in late 2007.
