Aquatic rover goes for a drive under the ice upside down Nasa's BRUIE, or the Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration, is being developed for underwater exploration in extraterrestrial, icy waters plus needs to be a tough aquatic explorer capable of navigating solo through an alien ocean locked under ice sheets that could be 6 to 12 miles (10 to 19 kilometers) thick.
Quite the machine to be able to navigate, test for life sings and to be able to control bouyancy...
The Antarctic waters are the closest Earth analog to the seas of an icy moon, which makes them an ideal testing ground for BRUIE technology. Three feet (1 meter) long and equipped with two wheels to roll along beneath the ice, the buoyant rover can take images and collect data on the important region where water and ice meet, what scientists call the "ice-water interface."
"We've found that life often lives at interfaces, both the sea bottom and the ice-water interface at the top. Most submersibles have a challenging time investigating this area, as ocean currents might cause them to crash, or they would waste too much power maintaining position," said lead engineer Andy Klesh. "BRUIE, however, uses buoyancy to remain anchored against the ice and is impervious to most currents. In addition, it can safely power down, turning on only when it needs to take a measurement, so that it can spend months observing the under-ice environment."
During several Antarctic field tests, the rover will remain tethered to the surface as Hand, Klesh, mechanical engineer Dan Berisford and University of Western Australia engineer Dan Arthur test its suite of instruments, including its two live, high-definition cameras.
"BRUIE will carry several science instruments to measure parameters related to life, such as dissolved oxygen, water salinity, pressure and temperature," said Berisford, who will attach the science instruments if early tests go well. But life on other worlds like Enceladus and Europa may be difficult to measure. "Once we get there," he added, "we only really know how to detect life similar to that on Earth. So it's possible that very different microbes might be difficult to recognize."
While the team has previously tested BRUIE in Alaska and the Arctic, this is the rover's first trial in Antarctica. Supported by the Australian Antarctic Program, the crew will travel to lakes and the seashore near Casey station, where they will drill holes in the ice in order to submerge BRUIE. The rover could even make some friends - curious penguins and seals sometimes investigate when the science teams drill through the ice.
The team will continue to work on BRUIE until it can survive under the ice for months at a time, remotely navigate without a tether and explore the ocean at greater depths. NASA is already at work constructing the Europa Clipper orbiter, which is scheduled to launch in 2025 to study Jupiter's moon Europa, laying the groundwork for a future mission that could search for life beneath the ice.
When launch counts drop the price either goes up or the number of people constantly needing to be hired and trained keeps going up as no one wants to eventually have the desire to return after a few lay offs.
]]>http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/meetings/a … Update.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace-P
The orbiter would perform 13 flybys of Ganymede, and 4 flybys of Callisto and carry up to 50 kg (110 lb) of scientific instruments, while the Europa lander would have carried up to 70 kg (150 lb) of scientific instruments
http://spacenews.com/europa-mission-pla … s-in-2017/
administration’s request for the mission in its 2017 budget proposal, $49.6 million, is far less than the $175 million it received from Congress in 2016. There is uncertainty in Congress as well: a House appropriations bill for fiscal year 2017 offers $260 million for the Europa mission, yet a Senate bill, while “supportive” of the mission, does not explicitly allocate any funds for it.
]]>Only 20 days on the surface to analyze 5 samples doesn't seem to be a very good return. Limitations in capabilities are there due to the unwillingness to utilize nuclear power for systems and data transmission make this a very poor scientific investment, all costs considered.
As Louis has observed, this is another example of the lack of direction at NASA, and why Elon Musk will be waiting on Mars to pop a Champagne bottle for NASA when they finally arrive 5 years later...
As Louis has observed, this is another example of the lack of direction at NASA, and why Elon Musk will be waiting on Mars to pop a Champagne bottle for NASA when they finally arrive 5 years later...
]]>In 2015, NASA revealed its plans to send a spacecraft to conduct several close flybys of Europa sometime in the 2020s. Now, the space agency has detailed — in a Science Definition Team (SDT) report — a mission to send a lander to the icy moon.
The 264-page report, which can be accessed here, lists out three key science goals for a future lander mission — searching for life on the moon, assessing its habitability by analyzing material from the surface, and characterizing Europa’s surface and subsurface to support future robotic missions.
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/docs/Europa … t_2016.pdf
Popular Mechanics February 10, 2017 A Mission to Land on Europa Takes Shape
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Low cost Europa lander missions.
Europa Orbiter - Possible In What Form?
Jupiter in a year for Europa orbiter?
Using Europa To Terraform Mars - wacky science or real possibility?
Terraforming Europa...is this possible?
]]>Not so sure about Io, since it's deep in the Jovian Van Allen belt; not much possibility of a human visit--ever. Same with Europa; Ganymede has some VAB radiation, but a human presence there could work with adequate shielding in a below ground structure sheltered with regolith. Callisto has human presence possibilities--as well as a tenuous atmosphere and suspected below surface H2O. Piggyback several orbiters and landers--nuclear powered?
]]>How about 4 orbiters/landers launched with one SLS, one pair for each of the four Galilean satellites?
GW
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