SWIM: NASA is working on diving robots for underground oceans on icy moons
The search for life on icy moons, such as Jupiter's Europa, is to be carried out by diving robots. NASA's JPL is already working on this.
A prototype of a diving robot being tested by JPL in a swimming pool.
(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the US space agency NASA are thinking far ahead: they are currently developing diving robots for the SWIM (Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmer) mission concept. Small diving robots are to search for signs of life on icy moons in subterranean oceans.
NASA's Europa Clipper space probe, which set off in October to investigate Jupiter's moon Europa, has not yet arrived at its destination. It will take until 2030 before it delivers its first data. However, NASA already has more far-reaching plans and intends to physically explore the icy moon Europa in the future. To this end, robots are to dive into Europa's subterranean oceans and find out whether life can be found in the water.
In search of life
The JPL's SWIM project is making initial approaches to this. It involves a carrier robot dropping dozens of diving robots the size of a cell phone into the subterranean oceans. They will then swim off and search for chemical information and temperature signals that indicate the presence of life.
"You might ask yourself why NASA is developing an underwater robot for space exploration. Because there are places in the solar system where we want to look for life, and we believe that life needs water. So we need robots that can explore these environments – autonomously, hundreds of millions of miles from home," explains Ethan Schaler, JPL principal investigator at SWIM.
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Development of various prototypes
JPL has tested several prototypes in a swimming pool. Initially, this is not done with high-tech. The main components of the underwater robot come from a 3D printer. It contains two inexpensive electric motors and off-the-shelf electronics. The prototype is powered by two propellers. Four flaps provide directional control. This also works autonomously. The underwater robot can already maintain its course independently and follow certain movement patterns for exploration. The prototype is attached to a fishing line so that it can be rescued should any problems occur. There is also a lifeline to pull it out of the water. During the tests, the engineers checked the sensor data in real time on a notebook. Several different robots had to complete these swimming tests in the swimming pool and in two tanks.
The prototype used for the tests is wedge-shaped, around 42 cm long, and weighs 2.3 kg. It is still being miniaturized for space and shrunk by a factor of three. To enable the robots to communicate underwater, JPL is developing a special communication system that allows data transmission and triangulation of the robots' position.
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The team has already found the right sensor technology. Engineers at Georgia Tech have developed a sensor that can measure pressure, acid and alkali content, as well as the conductivity and chemical composition of water. The sensor is only a few millimeters in size.
Test swimming in simulations
To test how the underwater robots behave in a real environment, they were tested in a simulation. The conditions with assumed pressure and gravity of the icy moon Europa were digitally imitated. A swarm of 12 cm long robots was to search for life. The JPL researchers were able to gain important insights for the development of autonomous algorithms for autonomous exploration.
The scientists could also gain insights into how and how many underwater robots need to be deployed to achieve optimum efficiency. According to current research, this involves around a dozen robots, which are deployed in four to five waves and can each explore a volume of 86,000 cmÂł. This is because the robots' batteries currently only last a maximum of two hours.
As the research work will still take some time, the scientists at JPL want to deploy their SWIM diving robots in oceans on Earth to advance marine research under the polar ice.
(olb)
