NASA Advances Initiatives to Deploy Robots for Drilling into the Icy Moons of Distant Planets

NASA has outlined a strategic plan for developing robotic systems capable of exploring icy moons with subsurface oceans. These robots, known as “cryobots,” are designed to penetrate thick ice layers and probe the hidden seas beneath, potentially uncovering signs of life.

This initiative was highlighted following a NASA-sponsored workshop in February, where experts in science and engineering gathered to discuss potential mission concepts for cryobots. The primary goal is to penetrate the icy surfaces of moons like Saturn’s Enceladus or Jupiter’s Europa, deploying a probe to analyze the oceans beneath.

Cryobots operate by melting through ice, using a cylindrical device that lands on the surface of an icy world. This device gradually descends as it melts the ice, with water refreezing around it. While similar “thermal drilling” techniques have been used on Earth for studying glaciers and ice caps, the conditions on Europa and Enceladus are more challenging due to their colder and thicker ice shells and less predictable environments.

NASA’s ongoing efforts to adapt terrestrial thermal drilling methods to space through projects like the Scientific Exploration Subsurface Access Mechanism for Europa (SESAME) and Concepts for Ocean Worlds Life Detection Technology (COLDTech) programs were discussed at the workshop held at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

The workshop provided an opportunity for scientists involved in these projects to reconvene and ensure that robotic mission architectures are being developed effectively.

The search for life in extraterrestrial water bodies is driven by the understanding that life requires essential molecules, compounds, and most importantly, water. Discoveries of water on Mars have opened up exciting possibilities for finding remnants of ancient life. However, ocean moons like Europa and Enceladus offer the prospect of finding currently habitable worlds, possibly harboring life in their waters, even if it might be microbial.

The Caltech workshop identified four key areas crucial for the development of these alien-water-world-exploring robots: communication, mobility, thermal capability, and power. These components will form the foundation of the roadmap for creating these groundbreaking robotic explorers.