“Because there are places in the solar system we want to go to look for life, and we think life needs water.” SWIM robots (short for Independent Sensing with Microwimmer) demonstrated impressive maneuverability during recent testing at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) pool. Propelled by propellers, the miniature wedge-shaped robots steered themselves to stay on course, made “lawnmower” motions back and forth, and even said “JPL,” NASA said.

Designed to search for evidence of life in the salty ocean beneath the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa, these robots could play a key role in detecting chemical and temperature signals that could indicate extraterrestrial life, according to scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Developing and testing robots.

“People may ask, why is NASA developing an underwater robot for space exploration?” “Because there are places in the solar system we want to go to look for life, and we think life needs water,” said Ethan Schaler, the project’s principal investigator at JPL. “We need robots that can explore this environment autonomously, hundreds of millions of kilometers away from home,” he added.

The latest prototypes are 3D-printed plastics assembled using cheap, commercially produced motors and electronics. Eventually these robotic swimmers will also be equipped with wireless underwater communication systems to transmit data and triangulate their positions while exploring the oceans of distant icy moons.

The robot used for pool testing was approximately 16.5 inches (42 centimeters) long. The team hopes to eventually shrink it to about 5 inches (12 centimeters) long, no larger than a cell phone. It was tied to a fishing rod, with an engineer walking alongside the rod, to make sure it could be rescued if needed during any of the 20 rounds of trials in the 25-yard (23-meter) pool.

“Underwater work in general is very challenging, and this is just the first of a series of projects we need to work on to prepare for the journey to the ocean world,” Schaler said. “But this is proof that we can build these robots with the capabilities we need, and we’re starting to understand the challenges they’ll face in an underground mission.”

Meanwhile, engineers are testing SWIM robots in computer simulations that mimic the pressure and gravity the robots would encounter on the moon. By repeatedly sending palm-sized robots to search for signs of life in these virtual environments, scientists say they have optimized the robots’ design and improved their ability to collect scientific data in unknown areas.

One of the key innovations for the robot swarm is a small, multi-sensor chip developed by engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta that can measure temperature, pressure, acidity, conductivity and chemistry—all critical factors in the search for life. . .

It will take years for the bots to make their way into Europa’s hidden ocean, which scientists suspect contains twice as much liquid water as all of Earth’s oceans combined. Because of this vast subsurface ocean, Europa is considered one of the most promising places to search for alien life in our solar system. The moon was studied extensively by NASA’s Galileo mission in the 1990s, which provided compelling evidence of a hidden lunar ocean. The next robotic mission to explore Europa, Europa Clipper, aims for a four-year study of the moon’s potential to support some form of alien life.