We know that NASA and all other space agencies of the world are trying to find extraterrestrial life forms in the universe. However, there is one man, who wants to single-handedly find them before everyone else and he is Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who is planning to search one of the moons of Saturn for aliens and it appears that he might end up being successful in this endeavor.
According to a report by New Scientist, Milner has set his eyes on the mysterious moon of Saturn, Enceladus, which, as the experts believe, has a very good chance of harboring alien life.
NASA scientists have so far discovered that Enceladus has something similar to an ocean. The space agency's Cassini spacecraft had discovered molecular hydrogen in the clouds of the moon, which indicates that hydrothermal vents might exist in that very ocean. Microorganisms gather surrounding this kind of vents on Earth and that's why the scientists think that the same is possible on this icy moon.
Milner had founded a $100 million-worth project, Breakthrough Starshot, in 2015, which was an attempt to launch small probes, in search of extraterrestrial life forms, to Alpha Centauri and now, he has announced his plans of exploring Enceladus for the same reason.
"Can we design a low-cost, privately funded mission to Enceladus which can be launched relatively soon, and that can look more thoroughly at those plumes, try to see what's going on there?" asked Milner at the New Space Age conference, which took place this month in Seattle.
As per Inverse, Milner along with team has "formed a sort of little workshop around this idea." The report also stated that the billionaire has estimated that similar efforts will take up to 10 years to get executed by NASA. Milner, on the other hand, wants to send over a low-cost probe, which would then collect data about Enceladus.
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NASA is also strongly focusing on the idea of exploring Enceladus further, as two out of 12 contenders that are being considered for the space agency's New Frontiers project, have Enceladus at the centre, reported Space.com. NASA is scheduled to announce the final selections in 2019, and the launch would probably take place somewhere in 2020.
