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Could Life on Europa Be Found by NASA's Tiny Robots?
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Posted by Okachinepa on 11/28/2024 @
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: NASA
Using a suite of potent scientific instruments, NASA's Europa Clipper will make 49 flybys of Jupiter's moon Europa in 2030 in an effort to find evidence that life could exist in the ocean beneath the frozen crust. The most cutting-edge scientific equipment ever transported to the outer solar system is aboard the spaceship, which launched on October 14. However, NASA researchers are already working on the next generation of robotic explorers to push the limits of scientific discovery as it embarks on its mission, exploring Europa's subsurface ocean and beyond.
Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers, or SWIM for short, is one such creative idea. This concept envisions the deployment of a swarm of tiny, cellphone-sized, self-propelled robots. An ice-melting cryobot would transport these robots to the ocean below. After being set free, they would disperse and investigate, looking for temperature and chemical cues that might indicate the existence of life.
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: NASA
Why is NASA creating an underwater robot for space travel, one would wonder? It's because we believe that life requires water, and there are locations in the solar system where we wish to search for life. According to Ethan Schaler, lead investigator on SWIM at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, "we therefore need robots that can explore those environments — autonomously, hundreds of millions of miles from home."
A set of prototypes for the SWIM idea, which is being developed at JPL, recently braved the waters of a competitive swimming pool at Caltech in Pasadena, which is 25 yards (23 meters) long. The outcomes were positive.
The most recent version developed by the SWIM team is a 3D-printed plastic prototype that uses inexpensive, commercially available motors and electronics. The prototype, which was propelled by two propellers and had four steering flaps, showed off its ability to maneuver under control, stay on course, and explore in a back-and-forth "lawnmower" pattern. It handled everything on its own without the team's direct assistance. Even "J-P-L" was written out by the robot.
During each test, an engineer with a fishing rod ran alongside the pool, and the robot was connected to a fishing line in case it needed to be rescued. A coworker nearby examined the robot's movements and sensor information on a laptop. The group tested several prototypes in pairs and at the pool for almost 20 rounds of tanks at JPL.
"Building a robot from the ground up and watching it function well in a relevant environment is amazing," Schaler remarked. "This is only the first of many concepts we would have to go through to get ready for a voyage to an ocean planet, and underwater robots in general are really difficult. However, it demonstrates that we can construct these robots with the required capabilities and start to comprehend the difficulties they would encounter on a mission that takes place underground.
The wedge-shaped prototype, which weighed five pounds (2.3 kilograms) and measured roughly 16.5 inches (42 centimeters) in length, was utilized in the majority of the pool tests. The robots, as designed for spaceflight, would be around three times smaller than current autonomous and remotely operated underwater scientific vehicles. In addition to using a unique wireless underwater acoustic communication technology for data transmission and position triangulation, the palm-sized swimmers would have miniature, specially designed components.
These tiny robots were tested digitally, albeit in a computer simulation rather in a swimming pool. Five-inch (12-centimeter) robots regularly searched for possible indications of life in a virtual swarm that replicated the pressure and gravity they would likely experience on Europa. The development of algorithms that would allow the swarm to explore more effectively was facilitated by the computer simulations, which also helped identify the boundaries of the robots' capacity to gather scientific data in an unfamiliar setting.
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit:NASA
Additionally, by taking into consideration tradeoffs between battery life (up to two hours), the amount of water the swimmers could explore (roughly 3 million cubic feet, or 86,000 cubic meters), and the number of robots in a single swarm (a dozen, sent in four to five waves), the simulations gave the team a better understanding of how to maximize science return.
Additionally, a group of researchers at Georgia Tech in Atlanta created and tested an ocean composition sensor that would allow each robot to measure temperature, pressure, conductivity, chemical composition, acidity or alkalinity, and other factors all at once. The chip, which is only a few millimeters square, is the first to house all of those sensors in a small container.
Naturally, a few more years of study would be necessary to prepare such a sophisticated concept for a potential future flight trip to an icy moon, among other things. Schaler envisions SWIM robots being further improved to perform scientific tasks here at home, such as assisting with oceanic studies or making vital observations beneath arctic ice.
Courteey of Synevol
Credit: Ethan Schaler
Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) oversees SWIM, a cutting-edge NASA project supported by the agency's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which encourages creative concepts for upcoming space travel. In the initiative, a swarm of tiny, self-sufficient swimming robots would scout underground seas on frozen moons like Europa for evidence of life. Delivered by an ice-melting cryobot, these cellphone-sized robots would disperse to look for temperature and chemical cues that might point to habitability or life.
SWIM, which is funded by NIAC Phase I and II grants under NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, is a component of a program that assesses innovative technologies that have the potential to revolutionize missions in the future. This program encourages proposals from researchers in academia, industry, and the U.S. government, pushing the frontiers of space exploration and aerospace.
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