It’soften saidthat we jazz more about the Moon than our own ocean . But what about the oceans of other moons ?
Robotic - engineering companyGerman Research Center for Artificial Intelligence(DFKI ) has been working on theEurEx ( Europa Explorer)project , which include conceptual design for a machinelike system open of search Europa ’s icy subterranean ocean .
Europa , Jupiter ’s sixth close moon , is thought to be one of the more inhabitable pocket of our solar system , as it ’s believed to have a salty fluid water ocean beneath its Earth’s surface . The ocean is also shielded from radiation sickness , making Europaa promising hostfor exotic life .
Nevertheless , the missionary post get with its fair share of difficultness .
Firstly , the delay in communicating between Europa and Earth could be somewhere in the realm of 33 to 53 minutes . This mean the robot must be able to work severally from solid ground - restraint as it will take too long for scientists to respond spontaneously .
TheDFKI Videoshowing their plans for the EurEx exploration of Europa ’s oceans .
The autonomous robot will have to mellow through Europa ’s 3 to 15 - kilometer - thick ( 1.8 to 9.3 mile ) deoxyephedrine crust to create a burrow that reaches the salt H2O layer beneath . Once the tunnel reaches this liquid sea , it will station a docking facility on the ice “ roof ” and deploy an army of “ micro - glider ” that will spread out and send signals .
After these micro - sailplane pick up enough information , a spear - like submarine calledLengwill be deploy and will begin to explore the sea , which they presage could be as rich as 100 klick ( 62 miles ) . It will swim to the bottom of the ocean and record data before coming back to the dock to communicate what it has found , reload its barrage fire , and download any raw mission .
plainly , EurEx is more of an data-based and conceptual plan at the bit , so it ’s unlikely it will become a reality within the come few class . That said , it has some very serious financial backing from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the German Aerospace Centre .
In the meanwhile , you could assure out their fully autonomous examination mission in the seawater basinful at the DFKI Robotics Innovation Center .
[ H / T : Motherboard ]
