Enceladus Explorer

[3] Enceladus is a small icy moon, seemingly similar in chemical makeup to comets,[4] with jets or geysers of water erupting from its surface that might be connected to active hydrothermal vents at its subsurface water ocean floor,[5][6][7][8][9] where the moon's ocean meets the underlying rock, a prime habitat for life.

[10][11] The geysers could provide easy access for sampling the moon's subsurface ocean, and if there is microbial life in it, ice particles from the sea could contain the evidence astrobiologists need to identify them.

[12] Water from the ocean is assumed to upwell through cracks in the ice and then eject into outer space through the plumes.

The IceMole would then be deployed to melt its way through, while navigating autonomously around hazards, and towards a target subglacial aquiferous fracture at a depth of about 200 m (660 ft) for an in situ examination for the presence of microorganisms before potential biosignatures and biomolecules are degraded by exposure to outer space.

[1][2][14] The IceMole has a high energy demand that would be met by a cable run from the lander's small nuclear reactor providing 5 kW of electrical power.