{"id":18744,"date":"2017-11-10T00:51:53","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/billionaire-yuri-milner-discusses-his-plan-to-look-for-life-on-saturn-moon-and-his-russian-connections\/"},"modified":"2017-11-10T00:51:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:51:53","slug":"billionaire-yuri-milner-discusses-his-plan-to-look-for-life-on-saturn-moon-and-his-russian-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/billionaire-yuri-milner-discusses-his-plan-to-look-for-life-on-saturn-moon-and-his-russian-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire Yuri Milner discusses his plan to look for life on Saturn moon \u2013 and his Russian connections"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_376055\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-376055\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-376055\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/171109-milner-630x473.jpg\" alt=\"Oliver Morton and Yuri Milner\" width=\"630\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/171109-milner-630x473.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/171109-milner-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/171109-milner-1260x945.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-376055\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, at right, chats with The Economist\u2019s Oliver Morton during the \u201cNew Space Age\u201d conference at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Russian billionaire Yuri Milner today laid out his vision to send the first privately funded interplanetary space mission to look for life at the Saturnian moon Enceladus&nbsp;\u2014 but first he had to address less lofty matters.<\/p>\n<p>Milner has been in the news for the past week because newly published confidential documents known as the \u201cParadise Papers\u201d revealed that two firms controlled by the Russian government backed his early investments in Facebook and Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>So, of course, that was the first topic Milner was asked about during an onstage fireside chat at The Economist\u2019s \u201cNew Space Age\u201d conference at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>The connections have sparked controversy because of concerns about Russian interference in America\u2019s political debate, with social media used as a propaganda tool. Milner pointed out that his investments were made during a different time, when the Obama administration was trying to hit a \u201creset button\u201d in its relations with Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a lot of excitement at the time,\u201d Milner said. \u201cA lot of capital went into Russia from the U.S., and a lot of capital also went in the opposite direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He noted that the Russian investments were paid back several years ago. \u201cFrom my standpoint, that\u2019s the end of the story,\u201d Milner said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was growing up in the Soviet Union, behind the Iron Curtain, my father always told me that I should try to stay away from politics,\u201d the 55-year-old founder of the investment firm DST Global said. \u201cI\u2019ve tried to follow his advice since then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During a follow-up interview, Milner told GeekWire that the \u201cParadise Papers\u201d controversy hasn\u2019t had any effect on his space projects.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FEconomistEvents%2Fvideos%2F1727377500629245%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>Searching for life beyond Earth<\/h4>\n<p>The bulk of Milner\u2019s talk focused on his financial support for the search for life beyond Earth, under the aegis of the Breakthrough Initiatives. Over the past couple of years, Milner has pledged $100 million to boost the radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, and another $100 million to send swarms of nano-probes through the Alpha Centauri star system.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to those two campaigns \u2014 known respectively as Breakthrough Listen and Breakthrough Starshot&nbsp;\u2014 the Breakthrough Watch program is supporting enhancements that should boost the capability of the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope to observe the Alpha Centauri system from its vantage point in Chile.<\/p>\n<p>In league with Australia\u2019s University of Sydney, Milner\u2019s team is also looking into the prospects for deploying a small-scale space telescope that\u2019s optimized to observe Alpha Centauri. The design under consideration is known as the Telescope for Orbital Locus Interferometric Monitoring of Alpha ceN, or TOLIMAN, an acronym that spells out one of Alpha Centauri\u2019s earlier names.<\/p>\n<p>So far, the Breakthrough Listen radio search has turned up some intriguing signals, but no clear evidence of E.T.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe actually found something we had not been looking for, which is radio signals from those mysterious objects that are called FRBs [fast radio bursts]. \u2026 We have been able to identify characteristics of those objects that were not clear from previous observations,\u201d Milner said.<\/p>\n<p>Some have speculated that high-frequency FRBs could be associated with extraterrestrial civilizations, but Milner said it\u2019s \u201cmore likely there\u2019s a natural explanation for this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Hydrogen found in plumes on Saturn's moon Enceladus\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-sVijc6jEg0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>Funding a mission to Enceladus<\/h4>\n<p>The latest twist is a plan to bring the search for life beyond Earth closer to home. In the past, astrobiologists have speculated that microbial life could lurk far below the surface of Mars, or beneath a miles-thick layer of ice on Europa, one of Jupiter\u2019s moons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the most promising recent candidate is Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn,\u201d Milner said.<\/p>\n<p>That mention brought a cry of \u201cyes!\u201d from Carolyn Porco, a planetary scientist who headed the imaging team for NASA\u2019s Cassini mission to Saturn and is a strong advocate for a follow-up mission to Enceladus.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"icon-quotes-left\"><\/span>&nbsp;Can we design a low-cost, privately funded mission to Enceladus which can be launched relatively soon?<span class=\"icon-quotes-right\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Instruments on the Cassini orbiter charted plumes of water spraying out from a series of fissures in Enceladus\u2019 icy surface. When the spacecraft flew through the plumes, it picked up the signature of molecules that could be associated with organic chemistry.<\/p>\n<p>The Cassini mission\u2019s readings suggest that there\u2019s a saltwater lake or ocean beneath Enceladus\u2019 ice, and that there just might be organisms living in that water.<\/p>\n<p>Milner said he and other interested parties (including Porco) have been&nbsp;discussing what it would take to find a \u201csmoking gun\u201d for biochemical activity at Enceladus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe formed a little workshop around this idea: Can we design a low-cost, privately funded mission to Enceladus which can be launched relatively soon, and that can look more thoroughly at those plumes, try to see what\u2019s going on there?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>NASA and the European Space Agency have been considering several proposals for Enceladus missions, including ELF, ELSAH and E2T. But Milner said it could take as long as 10 years to get those more expensive projects off the ground. He wants to send something through Enceladus\u2019 plumes sooner.<\/p>\n<p>Milner told GeekWire that the time frame for the mission he has in mind is still up in the air. The mission\u2019s potential price tag is also yet to be determined, although he said he\u2019s sure it\u2019ll be cheaper than a full-blown NASA mission. For now, the only expense is the cost of doing a feasibility study.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd if I am funding the study, I can do something there,\u201d Milner said.<\/p>\n<p><em>GeekWire was one of the media sponsors of The Economist\u2019s \u201cNew Space Age\u201d conference. For videos from the conference, check out the Facebook page for The Economist Events.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, at right, chats with The Economist\u2019s Oliver Morton during the \u201cNew Space Age\u201d conference at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) Russian billionaire Yuri Milner today laid out his vision to send the first privately funded interplanetary space mission to look for life at the Saturnian moon Enceladus&nbsp;\u2014 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1874,5169,3753,5008,1559,3754,3756],"class_list":["post-18744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astrobiology","tag-breakthrough-listen","tag-breakthrough-starshot","tag-breakthrough-watch","tag-enceladus","tag-seti","tag-yuri-milner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}