The assignment is for students to get into groups and choose planets that have potential in Human surviving through reseach. After choosing the planet, identify the challenges and opportunities so we are better fit for our design prompt given after this assignment. The Planet my group chose/coin flipped for was Enceladus.
Why Enceladus
Personally, my number one reason is because there is water on the moon. Despite its small area, the surface is conpletely frozen with ice and after research, information showed that there were liquid water under the frozen surface. It is also in the solar system so it would generally be easier to research about.
Basic information
Enceladus is a small icy moon of Saturn, about 500 kilometers wide, with a very bright and frozen surface. It is extremely cold, but beneath its ice is a ocean of liquid water. The south pole releases large plumes of water vapor and ice into space. These features make Enceladus a promising planet for potential design prompts for human survival.
Opportunities vs. Challenges
Eceladus presents multiple major opportunities for planetory exploration. The presents of water vapour, plumes, and heat escaping from the south pole suggests that there are oceans beneath the icy crust. The planet is also physically inside the solar system making it easy to reach and get to.
On the other hand, there are also several challenges on surviving on this planet. The surface of the planet is extremely cold and the low gravity would make landing significantly more difficult. The moon itself is also tidally locked to Saturn which means that the same face of the planet would always be facing saturn(For example: If Earth was Tidally locked to the sun one side of the world will always be dark and one side will always be in day light). There is also harsh radiation since there is not an atmosphere like earth on the moon, so advanced technology would be required to be on the planet.
What implications might there be for vehicle design?
Due to the moon’s special environment. The machine would have to be able to withstand cold temperatures, able to manuver on uneven terrain, and be able to be operated in low gravity. In this condition a flying probe would be more ideal than a landing vehicle.
How do we know what we know about your planet?
Human’s knowledge of Enceladus comes from the Cassini spacecraft, which studied Saturn and its moons from 2004 to 2017.Cassini’s instruments, including the Composite Infrared Spectrometer(measures radiation), Cosmic Dust Analyzer(detectes dust particles that are really small), and Imaging Science Subsystem(digital camera), collected thermal measurements(temperature), particle samples, and high-resolution images. These devices detected heat at the south pole, measured the chemical makeup of the plumes, and mapped surface fractures. The data revealed water vapor, salts, organic molecules, and continuous geological activity.
Sources
Porco, C. C., et al. (2006). Cassini observes the active south pole of Enceladus. Retrieved from https://web.mit.edu/wisdom/www/porco-enceladus.pdf
AI usage
AI was used for research on this assignment – AI transcipts
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