The Ice Moon Explorer

"I stepped out of the hatch, on to a life-bearing world.

Below, in the Damascus valley, a line of geysers was firing. They shot water up at twice the speed of sound. Flash freezing, it built diamond columns a hundred kilometers into space. Lots of it would snow, someday, on other moons.

It was bright. Saturn was out, and the lander floodlit the snow. Enceladus's fine grain snows made it the most reflective body in the solar system. Down in the "Tiger Stripe" valley though, the ice was a bit darker, and chunkier. Impurities form the ocean below.

Impurities like Life."