Skip to main content  See also:  NASA confirms subsurface ocean
on Saturn's moon Enceladus   NASA announced on April 3, 2014
that thanks to gravity measurements taken by the space probe
Cassini, that Saturn’s moon Enceladus indeed has a vast
subsurface ocean that may contain life. Scientists have
suspected this ever since a plume of water was detected shooting
out of that moon’s south pole.  As with Jupiter’s moon Europa,
which also has a subsurface ocean, tidal heating, in this case
from Saturn, is likely providing warmth to Enceladus’ under-ice
ocean. Water plus warmth could well equal life, which has just
put that 500 kilometer diameter moon on a prime list of targets
for a follow up planetary mission, along with Europa and another
moon of Saturn, Titan.  Any expedition to a moon of Jupiter or
Saturn is likely to cost several billion dollars, whether the
probe is an orbiter, a lander or, like the Viking expedition to
Mars, both. The heavy lift Space Launch System would certainly
have enough power to get a