And even on earth, why did animals evolve? I’m sure they have an answer, but I myself think plants are a much better design (and I also think ID and creation science are pseudoscience bunk). I mean, they don’t need a “home” , they are planted home and just stick their leaves upward and make their own food. Who needs animals?

Why should every organism go to the awkward and difficult lengths to manufacture food from CO2, water and sunlight, when there’s plenty of organisms all around you that just do it for you. All you have to do is ingest and digest them to get that benefit.

The same argument applies to why there are predators.

Here’s a better question:
Which moon has the best resources for building a human base? (resources for life support, as well as manufacturing, energy, growth, and eventual export)

Europa is closest of the three and has abundant water – but is buried deep in the Jovian radiation zone making it perhaps too deadly to visit in person. Given Europa is about the size of our Moon and less dense, its gravity well is small so we should get stuff off it easily -but then Jupiter’s gravity well is pretty huge so could be an issue there.

Titan and Enceladus are equally far away in Saturnean orbit – with Saturn’s graviy well and radiation far lesser than Jove’s but being more distant does make them harder to reach.

Titan has pros & cons being larger and perhaps more varied in resources with an atmosphere which could both help (aerobraking, atmospheric flight, drawing in and processing atmosphere for various uses) and hinder. (air resistence, wind erosion, blocking solar power – not that’ there’s much of that that far out anyhow!)

Ditto Enceladus which has plenty of water, geological activity which could again help or hinder colonisation. (Threat of vulcanism and maybe changing landscapes vs access to geothermal power source)

There’s something to be said for and against each of them and so it all depends what technology we’ve got then and what we’re most interested in doing or gaining from settling there.

Hopefully one day Humans will be able to live on or be able to visit all three of these worlds.

(Ok, guess that’s only *some* plants but still.)

And even on earth, why did animals evolve? I’m sure they have an answer, but I myself think plants are a much better design (and I also think ID and creation science are pseudoscience bunk). I mean, they don’t need a “home” , they are planted home and just stick their leaves upward and make their own food. Who needs animals?

It is typical for chemical reactions to slow down by a factor of 2 for every 10 °C reduction in temperature, so if there is life on Titan, how would we go about recognising it as such? Its pace of existence would be orders of magnitude slower than anything that we see on Earth.

My own personal educated~ish guesswork answer would be Europa which is warmer than Titan and has a wider life zone for that to arise and evolve in than Enceladus does.

But each moon has its pro’s and con’s.

Europa has the pro’s of that larger sub-surface ocean with probably liquid water and energy – at reasonably “cosy” temperatures (& pressures?) and with lots of space available relatively speaking. (Everything is relatively speaking here really.)

Europa’s cons – high radiation from the Jovian magnetosphere. Unknown chemistry and so many uncertainties on the exact details of that sub-surface ocean. The absence of lightning -at least we think its absent could also have negative implications for Europan life maybe?

Titan has the pros of having the most space and most varied environments plus its atmosphere and we know there’s complex chemistry on its surface – but cons are the extreme cold of its temperature and thelife it might have may well not be carbon-based life as we know it.

Enceladus has tiger stripes and sulci whichare unique and energetic and water rich environments but its so small and how much of that environment is really good forcretaing and sustaining life?

There’s really insufficent evdience and the only way toknow for sure is to go investigate all three! 8)

It’s not that simple as any micro life that came out of the geysers would have been blasted to dust due to pressure. What Cassini “tastes” when it flies through the plumes of Enceladus is pretty much what we can expect to find on the surface of the moon – 80% water, -20% organic compunds.

I’m with Caroline Porko and think it’s our best chance, but i think we’ll still have to do a little digging.

Kiss the surface, scoop up some of the snow-like ice that has floated back down to the surface from an eruption (no worries about high-speed collection, 17), and let the onboard lab figure out what you found. No need to burrow down to the liquid water, right?