Europa’s orbit is an ellipse, and the satellite’s shape is affected by Jupiter’s gravity, becoming deformed as it passes closer to Jupiter. This change in shape creates friction inside Europa, generating enormous amounts of heat in a mechanism known as tidal heat, which fuses some. Ice and formed vast deep oceans under the thick ice shell. Europa’s internal ocean is salty and is estimated to be about 100 kilometers deep on average, with a total volume of water twice that of Earth’s entire ocean, even though this moon is smaller than our planet. Comparison of Earth’s oceans and Europa’s deep oceans. Illustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech In addition, internal oceans are believed to exist on Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Callisto and Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus. Liquid water is essential for life as we know it, so an ocean world is ahead. from the search for extraterrestrial life.Jupiter Ice Explorer The European Space Agency is a spacecraft that will be used to explore the ice of Jupiter. cover. Photo: ESA/M. PedoussautUnder the Sea (Ice)The autonomous underwater exploration robot envisioned by SWIM is very small. Its slit-shaped body is about 12 centimeters long. A device called a “cryobot” will transport robots beneath the moon’s thick ice shell, using nuclear energy to melt the ice. The idea is to pack about four dozen robots into a cryobot and have them penetrate the thick ice shell for years. SWIM concept image, with the cylindrical probe in the upper left corner. Illustration: Ethan Schaler/NASA/JPL-Caltech There are benefits to sending out large numbers of exploration robots. One of them is being able to explore a wider area. Others are envisioned to operate in teams, so that several robots can explore the same area in overlapping directions, reducing errors in observation data. Each robot will be equipped with sensors to measure temperature, pressure, acidity, electrical conductivity, and the chemical composition of the water. examined. All these sensors will be mounted on a chip that is only a few square millimeters in size. said Ethan Schaller, project leader at NASA’s JPL, explaining the motivation behind SWIM. “Because there are places in the solar system that we want to go to find life – and we think that life needs liquid water.” This story originally appeared on WIRED Japan and has been translated from Japanese.
NASA Wants To Explore Jupiter’s And Saturn’s Icy Moons With Autonomous Robots
