Explorer of Enceladus and Titan

Artist's impression of possible hydrothermal activity on Enceladus
False-color, medium-resolution Cassini synthetic aperture radar mosaic of Titan's north polar region, showing hydrocarbon seas, lakes and tributary networks. Blue coloring indicates low radar reflectivity areas, caused by bodies of liquid ethane, methane and dissolved nitrogen.[1]

Explorer of Enceladus and Titan (E2T) is a space mission concept that would investigate the evolution and habitability of the Saturnian satellites Enceladus and Titan and is proposed by the European Space Agency in collaboration with NASA.[2]

The proposed mission would address key scientific questions regarding extraterrestrial habitability, abiotic/prebiotic chemistry and emergence of life, which are among the highest priorities of ESA's Cosmic Vision program.

  1. ^ Coustenis, A.; Taylor, F. W. (21 July 2008). Titan: Exploring an Earthlike World. World Scientific. pp. 154–155. ISBN 978-981-281-161-5. OCLC 144226016. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
  2. ^ Mitri, Giuseppe; Postberg, Frank; Soderblom, Jason M.; Tobie, Gabriel; Tortora, Paolo; Wurz, Peter; Barnes, Jason W.; Coustenis, Athena; Ferri, Francesca; Hayes, Alexander; Hayne, Paul O.; Hillier, Jon; Kempf, Sascha; Lebreton, Jean-Pierre; Lorenz, Ralph; Orosei, Roberto; Petropoulos, Anastassios; Yen, Chen-wan; Reh, Kim R.; Schmidt, Jürgen; Sims, Jon; Sotin, Christophe; Srama, Ralf (2017). "Explorer of Enceladus and Titan (E2T): Investigating the habitability and evolution of ocean worlds in the Saturn system". American Astronomical Society. 48. Bibcode:2016DPS....4822501M. Retrieved 2017-09-16.