ICY SCIENCE: SCIENCE SPACE ASTRONOMY Spring 2014 | Page 57

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IC: Are there any other plans to land probes on Titan?

VK: Sadly, nothing is in the works for the next few decades. There was a recent proposal for a Titan lake lander called the Titan

Mare Explorer (TiME) that would have accomplished the first nautical exploration of an extraterrestrial sea. Unfortunately,
NASA chose to fund a Mars mission instead.
IC: Do you get time to observe through a telescope?

VK: Occasionally I get time to observe. I don’t have the best telescope but I enjoy going to local star parties. My favourite
objects to observe are planets and nebulae. I was never really into stargazing until one trip I took in college to Arizona. I visited
Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona I saw an amazing view of Saturn. I also went on top of the Grand Canyon at night. The
sky was the darkest I had ever experienced. Born and raised in Washington, DC, I thought a nighttime sky looked dark blue.

I finally realized how black it truly can be standing on top of the Grand Canyon without the urban light pollution. It was the
most amazing view I had ever seen – the band of the Milky Way was visible, meteors every few seconds, and so many stars!
IC: Do you think there may be a possibility of microbe life on Titan?
VK: There is a possibility of microbial life on Titan. It is supported by the fact that Titan is the only known satellite in the solar

system with a thick atmosphere containing complex organic compounds – which include the chemical precursors of life. Some
models in scientific literature have suggested that non-water based life may exist in Titan’s lakes and seas. For example, some
scientists have suggested that conditions for the existence of methanogenic bacteria present on Earth also exist on Titan.
Titan’s sub-surface ocean consisting of water and ammonia may also be an environment for some forms of microbial life.
IC: Where else in the solar system do you think there could be life, from simple cell structures to more complex life forms?

VK:The best places to look for life in the solar system other than Titan are Enceladus and Europa since they have warm water
oceans beneath their surface. If life exists there, it may be similar to microbial life found in Earth’s deep oceans.

ICY SCIENCE | QTR 2 SPRING 2014