NASA engineer Ethan Shaler will create a swarm of robots to study the oceans on Europa and Enceladus
Ethan Shaler, a robotics engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Southern California), has proposed studying the subglacial oceans on the satellites Europa and Enceladus using a swarm of tiny robots. According to the idea of a specialist, the robots will be inside the probe, making a tunnel in the icy crust of the satellite, and then be released into the water when the “mother ship” will reach the ocean. This is reported in a press release on the official website of the laboratory.
A key difference between SWIM and similar projects is the small size of robotic swimmers, which will allow them to compactly place inside the probe, as well as to conduct an effective search for signs of life in an alien ocean. The project calls for wedge-shaped robots about 12 centimeters long and 60 to 75 cubic centimeters in volume. About 40 robots could be housed in the “cryobot” cargo compartment 10 centimeters long and 25 centimeters in diameter, which takes up about 15 percent of the total payload volume. The remaining volume could be used for less mobile but more powerful scientific instruments capable of making stationary measurements and collecting data over long periods of time.
Using a swarm of robots would solve several problems associated with studying the subglacial oceans with probes. “The Cryobot will be connected via cable to a ground landing module, which will serve as a communications hub with dispatchers on Earth. In this way, the probe will not be able to go far beyond the point of exit from the ice crust into the ocean. In addition, the robots will collect data away from the “cryobot,” whose nuclear battery used to melt the ice will create a heat bubble, potentially causing reactions that change water chemistry.
SWIM will also simulate the swarming behavior of fish and birds, which will reduce data errors as well as identify water temperature and salinity gradients with greater accuracy. Each robot will be equipped with its own propulsion system, onboard computer and ultrasonic communication system, as well as sensors for temperature, salinity, acidity and pressure. Tools for monitoring biomarkers indicating the presence of life are foreseen as part of the second phase of the study.
Schaller and his team received $600,000 from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to develop the Sensing With Independent Micro-Swimmers (SWIM) concept. NIAC provides funding for groundbreaking developments in aeronautics and space that could impact future NASA missions. The engineers plan to spend the grant to build various prototypes to be printed on a 3D printer and test them over the next two years.