So while a lightsail can’t enter orbit around moons like Europa and Enceladus, they could perform flybys. That’s why the authors call them “precursor” missions. The researchers have their eye on the plumes that come from the buried oceans on both moons

A new paper shows how lightsails could be used to visit the icy moons Europa and Enceladus, two prime targets in the search for life. The paper is “A Light Sail Astrobiology Precursor Mission to Enceladus.” It’s in its pre-print stage and hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet. The authors are Manasvi Lingam from the Florida Institute of Technology, Adam Hibberd from the University of Texas, and Andreas Hein from the Institute for Interstellar Studies and the University of Luxembourg.

Space travel is complicated stuff, even though we’re growing accustomed to overcoming the complexity. But laser sails introduce even more complexity, and it’s apparent when you look at launch windows and how they relate to minimum velocities and destinations. Minimum velocities are moving targets that depend largely on the destination and the launch dates.

Europa and Enceladus are critical targets in the search for life. These types of moons are not as exotic as we once thought, and we need to learn more about them. This paper is an initial look at using laser sails to get there as precursor missions. The ESA and NASA are already working on missions to Jupiter’s icy moons that are based on chemical propulsion. But there may be a role for laser sails in exploring these moons.

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