But can I let you in on a little secret?’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘Nobody really expects Scintilla to come back up from the vent – not from ultimate depths, assuming the vent’s as deep as people are saying. At least no one at JPL does. I wouldn’t be distraught, honestly. The ROVs and other kit will retrieve data. And we’ll bring Scintilla up from shallower depths – we’ll be careful with it. So it should, I imagine, still give us interesting footage and samples. But if we want to push it, push it as far as the vent reaches, then yeah, I wouldn’t put money on seeing it again.’
