These mini-robots will explore the alien oceans of the Solar System

Many enthusiasts ofexobiology born towards the end of the XX^e century probably have in mind the famous novel 2010: Odyssey Two of Arthur Clarke, the famous inventor of the concept of geostationary satellite. He was already taking seriously the idea that life forms could possibly exist in the ocean under the pack ice of Europe, following the success of the missions Travel 1 and 2 during their visits to the moons of Jupiter.

The discovery of Io volcanism was then made and the first close-up images of the European sea ice had been obtained. So that inspired by the discovery of life forms in the vicinity of hydrothermal springs in the abyss on Earth during the 1970s, some had speculated that there might be similar ones in the ocean of Europe, with a volcanism from, as in the case of Ioof the tidal forces of the Jupiterian system.

These ideas have only gained more and more weight over the years, to the point that missions to Europe, directly or indirectly, have been considered or are already in preparation such as Juice and especially Europa Clipper. We also think that they could apply to the case of Enceladus, another icy moon but of Saturn.

It has also been a while since the engineers of the Nasa plan a mission with a probe equipped with a source ofenergy nuclear capable of generating enough heat to enter as nuclear tunnel boring machine Europe’s sea ice to a place where it would be the thinnest to finally emerge in its global ocean.

Today, NASA is supporting studies of a variant of this idea with a project proposed by Ethan Schalermechanical engineer robotics to the mythical Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, in Southern California, whose concept Sensing With Independent Micro-Swimmers (Swim) recently received Phase II funding of $600,000. This will allow him and his team to manufacture and test 3D printed prototypes over the next two years.

A nuclear cryobot with its swarm of swimming robots

Indeed, the tunnel boring machine nuclear would then feature a swarm of robots the size of a mobile phone rather than a single robot autonomous to explore the ocean environment of Europe in search of signs of extraterrestrial life. Because, according to Schaler, with a swarm of small swimming robots, we are able to explore a volume of much larger ocean water and improve our measurements by having multiple robots collecting data in the same area “. They would be wedge-shaped robots, each about 12 centimeters long and about 60 to 75 cubic centimeters in volume. About four dozen of them could fit in a 10 centimeter long section of a 25 centimeter diameter nuclear “cryobot”.

We know that the probe Europa Clipperwhich is scheduled for launch in 2024, should then go into orbit around Europe by 2030. It could then prepare the ground by making it possible to determine the regions where a lander could land and release a cryobot which would remain connected with it by a cable while it would sink in the direction of Europe’s ocean with as little ice to cross as possible.

Possible cryobots are being investigated as part of the program Scientific Exploration Subsurface Access Mechanism for Europa (Sesame) from NASA. The data that a cryobot could collect in contact with the ocean would then be retransmitted via the cable to the lander which in turn would transmit them to an orbiting probe which would eventually send them in the direction of Earth. The lander should benefit from particularly hardened electronics because the flux of dangerous cosmic rays is significant over Europe in the region of magnetosphere of Jupiter where the Moon is (Ganymede is much safer from this point of view).

A swarm of micro-robots, cousins ​​of the little ones drone on Earth, would have several advantages. We can already think that the heat released by the nuclear cryobot in its immediate environment could lead to chemical reactions altering measurements of the composition of the liquid water around it. The micro-robots could carry out analyzes not only in a larger volume of water but above all further away.

More precise and more credible information would be obtained on gradients chemicals, temperature or salinity of the ocean of Europe. Each robot would have, in addition to its own propulsion system, its computer board and its communication system by ultrasoundof the temperature sensorssalinity, acidity and pressure

The possibility that they also contain chemical sensors sensitive to biomarkers that can indirectly reveal signs of life will soon be studied.