How an Islander hopes to help find life on a Saturn moon

A Prince Edward Islander has embarked on a mission to find life on one of Saturn's icy moons.

Peter Willis left his work on NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars two years ago, to supervise the chemical analysis and life detection group at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif.

The group is testing water vapour plumes on Enceladus, where Willis believes life could be detected.

"The entire scientific community is determined: This is the target, this is where we want to go," he said. 

Scientists once thought Enceladus was unremarkable and that there was nothing particularly unusual about the satellite, Willis said.

This is the sort of unanticipated discovery that scientists live for.- Peter Willis

That changed when the Cassini spacecraft started flying closer to the moon in 2005, detecting organic chemicals on jets of water being sprayed out into space.

"I think it's the most exciting planetary science discovery that's been made in the last decade," Willis said.

"This is the sort of unanticipated discovery that scientists live for."

Willis has worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab for almost 20 years. He helped get the Mars Perseverance rover ready to collect samples on the Red Planet.

Now, he's developing instruments to analyze the jets of water on Enceladus.

Willis said the plan is to have a new spacecraft with a "mouth" to collect that water as it flies through the plumes — sort of like a whale or a "big electronic bird."

"We're going to melt [the water] and we're going to analyze what's in that water," he said.

"We can use the 'taste' to determine, Does this taste like some completely abiotic rock or does this taste like it has signs of life?"

Testing in progress

The plumes are very diffuse, Willis said. They collect about one microlitre of water.

For comparison, a typical drop of water contains 25 microlitres.

Willis said he's looking for something in the samples that could reveal the possibility of life.

"The big target really is amino acids, the building blocks of proteins," he said.

Willis said NASA has not approved the mission yet. The proposal will be submitted next year.

If approved, the launch would be sometime in the 2030s. Willis said the journey to Enceladus would take seven to eight years, and that the testing itself could take three.

"Best case scenario, we would actually execute these measurements in 2046," he said.

Willis said he hopes he can culminate his career working on the project.