| ▲ The small robot ‘Swim’ comes out of the Criobot and goes on a planetary ocean exploration (Image=NASA) | ||
Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus suggest that vast oceans exist beneath the ice surface. If large amounts of water were found on these planets, extraterrestrial life might exist.
In the future, a group of mobile phone-sized robots will enter under the surface of several miles-thick ice on Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s moon Enceladus to conduct marine exploration activities, such as searching for extraterrestrial life. The Cryobot, a rover equipped with a device capable of melting ice, is filled with small robots, and swims out of the Cryobot to explore the ocean.
This vision for planetary ocean exploration was presented by ‘Ethan Schaler’, a robotics engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He recently received a $600,000 grant from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. He was initially awarded $125,000 in funding to study the feasibility and design options of robotic expeditions in 2021. JPL researchers, including Essan Schaler, plan to build and test robot prototypes using 3D printing technology over the next two years.
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| ▲ The underwater rover descends from the probe (Image=NASA) | ||
The small robot conceived by Essan Schaler was named ‘Sensing With Independent Micro-Swimmers (SWIM)’. Swim is recognized as an innovative concept in that it is much smaller than the existing planetary ocean rovers and can accommodate many more robots inside the Cliobot.
They might broaden the scientific reach of planetary ocean probes, assess the potential habitability of ocean-bearing objects, and increase the likelihood of detecting evidence of extraterrestrial life.
The swim robot that the JPL research team is envisioning has a wedge shape with a length of 12 cm and a volume of 3 to 5 cm2. About 48 of these robots can fit in a ‘Cryobot’ with a diameter of 5 cm. Criobot is a rover that can melt ice cubes and is equipped with scientific equipment to collect data from the planet’s interior oceans.
NASA plans to launch the ‘Europa Clipper’ mission in 2024 with the goal of reaching Jupiter’s moon Europa in 2030. The Criobot concept for exploring the planet’s ocean world is being developed through NASA’s Scientific Exploration Subsurface Access Mechanism for Europa (SESAME) program and other NASA technology development programs.
The concept of the swim robot, with its ambitious goals, is to reduce the risks of exploration while advancing science. The Criobot is connected to the planetary lander via a communications tether, which will make contact with mission controllers on Earth.
By sending swim swarm robots to the planet, the JPL researchers expect that they will be able to observe and collect more data regarding the planet’s marine environment than when the cryobots acted independently.
