Yuri Milner Sets His Sights (Much) Higher
Russian billionaire and physicist Yuri Milner was named after former cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, known as the first man in the world to journey to space. True to his namesake, Milner has been captivated by space from a young age. As he moved through life achieving success after success with investments in tech startups like Facebook Airbnb, Alibaba and Groupon, Milner attained great wealth. But he did not lose sight of his early fascination with what’s beyond our starry skies.
With Great Wealth Comes Great Responsibility – For Some
Although he leads the lavish lifestyle so typical of Russian billionaires and makes ostentatious purchases such as overpriced mansions, this super-rich Russian has also become known for his generosity when it comes to funding worthy causes, especially when it comes to science-driven projects. In 2012 he partnered with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to launch the Breakthrough Initiative, a program offering a US$3 million cash prize for great achievement in physics, science and maths as well as generous scholarship programs. Since 2015, Milner has also invested a staggering US$200 million in space-related projects.
Setting Sights on the Final Frontier
Through a project called Listen, Milner is financially backing efforts to find signs of extra-terrestrial life and civilizations. Another program called Starshot was launched with the goal of creating an unmanned spacecraft capable of reaching our nearest neighbouring star system Alpha Centauri. According to Milner, it is appropriate that we devote some resources to ask some of the biggest existential questions like, ‘are we alone in the universe?’ While a trip to another star system may be a long-range goal, Milner has started working with NASA on a life-hunting mission somewhere (slightly) closer: Enceladus.
It’s One of Saturn’s Moons
According to recently published documents, NASA and Milner’s Breakthrough Starshot Foundation have signed an agreement that covers an ambitious mission to Enceladus. Because it has a subsurface ocean similar to oceans on earth, Enceladus has become a prime target in the pursuit of finding extra-terrestrial life in our solar system. Data gained from the Cassini Mission, which returned last year after orbiting Saturn for over a decade, indicated that there may be geothermal activity on the ocean floor. Geothermal vents are generally oases for a diverse range of ocean-dwelling lifeforms. Cassini also analysed water vapour gathered by flying through erupting geysers on the moon, and it was revealed that the vapour contains complex salts and organic molecules. Cassini was not created to detect life, and as such the mission did not find any living organisms. It did, however, uncover invaluable hints that there may be life in the moon’s ocean.
Is there something swimming in mysterious alien waters?
Scientists are as keen as Yuri Milner to find out. They hope to return to Enceladus to further explore its intriguing subsurface ocean in the near future. The mission has been agreed on and NASA, together with Milner’s Breakthrough Starshot Foundation, are working on scientific plans for the mission. NASA has committed more than US$70,000 to the mission for its staffing costs on the project and Breakthrough will lead and pay for the mission.