Sea Gliders for Other Worlds

An anonymous submitter writes: "NASA has, for the moment, killed funding for research leading to an underwater probe for Europa's suspected saltwater ocean. But it's possible that this is a good thing. SPACE.com proposes that U.S. Navy-funded research into underwater gliders could offer a superior means of probing Europa, exploring Venus, and even diving into the methane/ethane seas of Titan. NASA wanted a big battery and propeller machine under the ice of Europa, but that might break down, stir up water that should left undisturbed, and leak lubricants into a pristine research environment. The navy wants gliders with internal actuators because they have no flaps or propellers, no lubricant, and one already exists that could "fly" under the Pacific from Seattle to Tokyo on a penlight battery! Another model uses no batteries for locomotion at all, but instead taps heat gradients."

Comments

Re:Problems with a reverse heat gradient

[wyrmis]

Not only are you correct about the heat flow changing the way we think about water (we could feasibly due tests near to "lava" rifts in our own ocean floor to make sure it works)...there is a lot of speculation as to its center. If it gets there, and the heat gradient has been misjudged...then the balance will be off. If it gets there, and it turns out that the heat gradient is extremely variable from one point to another...then the balance will be off.

Also, if it gets there...and it turns out the liquid is too thick or (due to extra-fluid movement) too thin...then...yep, the balance will be off. The fact is that, while I am almost in love with the tech-idea, I don't want to wait for six or seven years just to say "Oops...let's try again, adjust up point 03 on the reaction slope" and then wait another how many years to here "Oops...ok, we are going to need..."

Dang it! It would break my Heart!

Re:Only 1 Knot?

[wyrmis]

Actually, I think they are shooting for frustatingly slow. Perpetual motion is not an option...and longly-sustained-low-energetic motion is only an option for a fair time. Longly-sustained-high-energy is almost unattainable as far as we know. So, they have to go with low-energy to make it longer-sustained. At least this would be pertinent with space exploration. Earth exploration could allow for "recharges." Of course, if it takes it 3 months of time to get its data...then I feel it would be well worth it. On Earth though, as opposed to Europa, it might still be worth it but I see little use to such things unless they are somewhat fixed in later models.

Gliding torpedo

[John Jorsett]

I knew a Navy engineer who wanted to make a gliding torpedo. It would be slow, but so quiet that it would be undetectable. He also thought that it could be programmed to hold a ship 'hostage', poised just beneath it and set to detonate if the ship changed position. Don't know if anything ever became of his ideas, but they were interesting.

All they really need...

[Anonymous Coward]

All they really need to do is land and sample the ice. If there is life under the ice, and there is a turnover of water onto the ice as I have read, then there will be evidence of life in the frozen water on the surface.
This would be much easier to do than getting a sub through the ice - if it turns up positive we can then go for the sub.

Re:Biosphere station on Mars.

[Anonymous Coward]

A Mars colony would be nice, but I think I'd settle for a methodical overall path to extraterrestrial expansion... like, first we build a space elevator a-la Red Mars (asteroid tethered into geosync position, use the tether as an elevator by pulling mass up by letting space rocks down) to get our launch costs down, then LaGrange-point cities, then, colonize and Industrialize the Moon. Once we are building our vehicles outside Earth's steep gravity well, we can think about pushing further into space.

$1000/lb is just too damn expensive for migration purposes.

"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'OH!" ~Homer

one of the cool....

[greymond]

on of the cool things about having being in a country persueing military operations (war on terrorism) and having a rocky market - is all the cool gadgets we get out of it - just think of all the cool stuff that was invented during ww1 and ww2 (good and bad there was still alot of neet stuff)

New transport for drug trafficking

[NetMasta10bt]

I can just imagine fleets of these long tube like gliders deep in the ocean, programmed to travel to a specified GPS location for pick up. They could carry huge ammounts of drugs! This will be the DEA's new nightmare.

Geek Factor THIS!

[cosmol]

There was talk on the geocaching list years back about a marine geocache. Of course there would be gps on board and a small thruster to move it around the ocean. It would obviously have to be powered by solar cells.

This gliding technology seems like a perfect fit. Low power consumption, intermittent surfacing, and a simple principle.

While I'm daydreaming, wouldn't it be cool to send one of these things (or any homebuilt autonomous vehicle) around the world?

Forget the X prize, I'm offering the C prize (amount TBA) to the first person who does this with less than $500.

You'd need an efficient drive system, sail or this gliding technique comes to mind. Of course a gps, and modest CPU, a linux ucSimm perhaps. Put it all together in a solid seafaring shell, slap some solar panels on it and let it go.

You'd want to keep track of it, but I'm not sure what satellite/radio options exist. HAM would only work near civilization, and satellite is probably too expensive. But that is only a minor obstacle :)

Locomotion from Buoyancy?

[jcr]

A glider in water has an option that a glider in the air doesn't: it can alternate between being heavier and lighter than the fluid around it.

Suppose this glider had a buoyancy tank which could be expanded or contracted like a fish's swim bladder. Whether rising or falling, it can trade altitude for horizontal motion.

It wouldn't be fast, but it probably doesn't need to be.

-jcr