NASA robotic system to study Saturn’s moons for alien life

Several concepts have already been studied to explore the subsurface oceans of Europa and Enceladus using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). However, access to subsurface ocean remains an outstanding challenge, researchers said. 

The proposed concept is to deploy a surface-to-subsurface robotic system, namely Icy-moon Cryovolcano Explorer (ICE), which will land on the surface of an icy moon, traverse to a cryovolcano, descend into its opening, perform in-situ science in the vent or crevasse, and ultimately deploy underwater vehicles to explore a subsurface ocean.

ICE involves three modules — Descent Module (DM), Surface Module (SM), and AUVs. DM carries AUVs and descends into a vent by using a combination of roving, climbing, rappelling, and hopping, like an experienced human alpinist. The estimated gas density of an ejecting plume is sufficiently low, therefore its dynamic pressure would not be an obstacle for descent. 

SM stays on the surface, generates power by radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) and solar cells, and communicates with Earth. DM relies on the power and communication link provided by SM through a cable to minimise the size and weight. 

It is a highly autonomous agent being capable of quickly responding to a dynamically changing environment, such as episodic eruption, and resiliently handling any anomalies under significant communication latency. Once DM reaches the subsurface ocean, it launches the AUVs to explore the exotic environment that potentially harbours life.