Tech UPTechnologyA swarm of small robots could search for extraterrestrial...

A swarm of small robots could search for extraterrestrial life on Europa or Enceladus

This scenario could be a reality in the future. One day, dozens of tiny swimming robots could traverse the water beneath the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s moon Enceladus, searching for signs of extraterrestrial life. This is stated by researcher Ethan Schaler of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose Sensing With Independent Micro-Swimmers (SWIM) concept has received $600,000 (about 586,000 euros in exchange) in Phase II funding from the NASA Innovative program Advanced Concepts (NIAC).

“My idea is , where can we take miniaturized robotics and apply it in new and interesting ways to explore our solar system? With a swarm of tiny swimming robots, we can explore a much larger volume of ocean water and improve our measurements by having multiple robots collecting data in the same area,” explains Ethan Schaler.

An army of cryobots

Although it is not an official NASA mission but rather a concept mission, SWIM is oriented towards the development of wedge-shaped robots, each about 12 centimeters long, grouped by dozens.

Roughly four dozen of them could fit into a 10cm-long section of a 25cm-diameter cryobot, taking up only about 15% of the science payload volume. The advantage? That there would be plenty of room left for more powerful but less mobile science instruments that could collect data during the long journey through the ice and provide stationary measurements in the ocean.

How would these little robots work?

The cryobot would connect via a communications cable to the surface-based lander, which in turn would be the point of contact with mission controllers on Earth.

SWIM would also allow data to be collected from the cryobot’s fiery nuclear battery, which the probe would rely on to melt a downward path through the ice . Once in the ocean, that heat from the battery would create a thermal bubble, slowly melting the ice on top and potentially sparking reactions that could change the chemistry of the water.

As explained by the expert, the cryobots could be grouped in a behavior inspired by fish or flocks of birds, thus reducing errors in the data through their overlapping measurements.

Reference: NASA

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