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NASA Tests a Drone To Explore Jupiter's Moon in Antarctica (popularmechanics.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the very-cold-drones dept.

Three months of research in Antarctica is just the beginning for one Georgia Tech researcher, according to an article shared by schwit1: The waters beneath our planet's ice sheet are fascinating, turning up species few people have ever laid eyes on. But they are not the final target of this chase. Icefin [a 10-foot-long subsea drone] is meant to search for alien life -- a "bug hunt," as some scientists cheerfully call it. It is bound for the icy waters of Jupiter's moon, Europa, possibly as soon as 2030...

The new equipment includes sensors to monitor for organics and measure environmental factors like the presence of dissolved oxygen and levels of acidity, all to see if Europa could (in theory) support life in its subterranean seas... The subsea drone is also smarter than its prototype predecessor, and that high-IQ autonomy would be needed on Europa. The probe must not only operate 400 million miles from Earth but also navigate all by itself under alien ice.

33 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. I wasnt aware ... by PPH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... that Jupiter even had a moon in Antarctica.

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    Have gnu, will travel.
  2. Hang on by orbit500 · · Score: 1

    Werenâ(TM)t we told to attempt no landing there?

    1. Re:Hang on by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      I bet you're one of those people that thinks '1984' was an instruction manual.

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      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re: Hang on by orbit500 · · Score: 1

      Yeah I mean safari on ios11 is a really obscure combination, canâ(TM)t expect it to work everywhere. Personally I wrestle with Unicode translations 5 days a week for a global telco, canâ(TM)t be arsed to pay attention for weekend stuff.

  3. Re:Quit calling it a moon by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    Nonsense, the meaning of moon in astronomy for centuries also includes any planetary satellite. You'll note in the 1600s Galileo discovered the "Galilean moons".

  4. Wow I had no idea! by eddeye · · Score: 1

    Jupiter has a moon in Antarctica?

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    Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch.
  5. Not a drone, a probe. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    NASA doesn't make drones because drones do well defined repetitive tasks. NASA makes probes that explore the unknown. Even the program is called "Ross Ice Shelf and Europa Underwater Probe"

    Language matters.

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    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Not a drone, a probe. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      Language matters but matters change. The word 'drone' has been appropriated to mean a whole bunch of things. Just be glad the lead picture wasn't a DJI Phantom.

      But this is a *great* idea. Oceanography really is a poor stepchild in funding giving the size, technical challenges and importance to the rest of the biosphere (I'll try to avoid making a Trump joke here. Oops). This gives us a way of 'calibrating' the probes (a better word) while getting useful baseline data.

      Guess there really are some smart people doing science. Who knew?

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      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Not a drone, a probe. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      Guess there really are some smart people doing science. Who knew?

      Anyone that knows anything about science.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  6. Phrasing by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Technically not going to be a landing, it's a probing.

    I'm sure that's fine.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  7. Written language ability is declining by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

    It's the 'smartphone effect': lazily leave out words for brevity because thumbs hurt or the light is about to turn green; it's the reader's fault if the result is incoherent nonsense. Problem with this is that it is spreading like a cancer to ruin properly written grammar everywhere.

    1. Re:Written language ability is declining by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      lot wut

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      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Written language ability is declining by arth1 · · Score: 1

      The problem here isn't leaving out words, but an attempt to make the title more sensational by moving "Jupiter" closer to the front, while avoiding commas. Not only does it tell the reader that the moon is in Antarctica, but also that Jupiter only has one moon.

      Both problems could easily have been prevented, e.g. by

      NASA Tests Jupiter Moon Exploration Drone in Antarctica

      Or even, given that this is Slashdot and not Twitter, and readers can be presumed to know what Europa is in the context of NASA and drones:

      NASA Tests Europa Exploration Drone in Antarctica

      But what do I know. English is only my third language.

    3. Re:Written language ability is declining by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Actually, I'm seeing smartphone autocorrect patch up a lot of bad grammar. Then sometimes, just for fun, it twists an ordinary phrase into something totally unrecognizable.

  8. JPL NASA interview about Europa (shameless plug) by DeathtoPorgs · · Score: 2

    Longtime lurker here. I got to interview a JPL NASA planetary chemist and astrobiologist to discuss his work on the Europa Clipper and other space-related things for my movie podcast. He plays a sound model of Europa's oceanic activity towards the end. For anyone interested fast forward past the movie talk to about 42 minutes to cut straight to the interview: http://thepestlepodcast.com/st...

  9. Re:Quit calling it a moon by tonique · · Score: 1

    I parsed the headline right away as: NASA [subject] tests [predicate active verb] (a drone to explore Jupiter's moon) [object] (in Antarctica) [adverbial]. Granted, English is not my first language...

  10. Re:Quit calling it a moon by tonique · · Score: 1

    Bah, replied to a wrong comment.

  11. "Navigate all by itself under alien ice" by tonique · · Score: 1

    I have been under the impression Europa's ice cover is expected to be something like 100 km thick. It seems like a flight of fantasy to try to penetrate through that..?

    Other than that, I'm certainly all for sending a probe to Europa. I think the first probe could concentrate on analysing the ice cover in great detail.

    1. Re:"Navigate all by itself under alien ice" by BlueStrat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I have been under the impression Europa's ice cover is expected to be something like 100 km thick. It seems like a flight of fantasy to try to penetrate through that..?

      Other than that, I'm certainly all for sending a probe to Europa. I think the first probe could concentrate on analysing the ice cover in great detail.

      Don't have time to find it again, but I read a piece a while back on this Europa underwater probe project that said that radar showed there were places where Europa's ice was much, much thinner such that reaching the liquid underneath isn't an outright impossibility for a relatively small interplanetary probe, I think it was near Europa's polar geysers which would make sense. Also, the areas around these geysers would be a prime place to search for life, as energy sources for biological life that far out from the sun are few. Ecosystems may exist around the vents somewhat similar to life around undersea volcanic vents on Earth.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    2. Re:"Navigate all by itself under alien ice" by Katatsumuri · · Score: 1
      More like 100m to 30km: http://kiss.caltech.edu/worksh...

      Most of it may be quite thick, but some surface features suggest thinner regions covering near-surface lakes.

    3. Re:"Navigate all by itself under alien ice" by DarthVain · · Score: 1

      Either way beyond our capabilities to penetrate. Nothing we've ever sent to space has excavated anything beyond cm or perhaps a few metres that I'm aware. Also from what I remember the underwater properties is only postulated at. Perhaps sending a simple drill and a ice fishing line with a probe might be more reasonable. Also I seem to recall that the the "water" properties themselves is also a further postulation, in that it could quite possibly be more of a thick slush underneath to which a "swimming" probe might have trouble navigating... Anyway seems a lot of speculation to send a 10m probe to at this time. I'm all for visiting and trying experiments to ascertain the nature of the hydrology and getting some samples, only they might have to reign in some of their fanciful ideas of what is really reasonable.

  12. First, they will ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... have to tractor-beam the moon to Antarctica.

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    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  13. Re:Jupiter is HUGE! by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

    I was thinking something similar. Now to figure out how to work a Uranus joke into the mix somehow. Perhaps after I finish my wake up and get through my 2nd cup of J. :)

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  14. Re:Quit calling it a moon by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    It's a satellite. I am tired of everything being redefined in the last few decades to appeal to the masses.

    That's no moon. It's another pointless pseudogrammatical argument.

  15. The biggest technical challenge will be ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    NASA Tests a Drone To Explore Jupiter's Moon in Antarctica

    ... getting Jupiter's moon to Antarctica.

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    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:The biggest technical challenge will be ... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      The environmental impact assessment for this mission is going to be a big report.

  16. Follow the action at hot water drill site 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm not part of the Georgia Tech team, but before events conspired and time ran out they were scheduled to deploy through our drill hole through the 300m thick Ross Ice Shelf at 80 degrees south latitude. You can follow the drama on our instagram feed:

    https://www.instagram.com/the_ross_ice_shelf_programme/

    I'd suggest to scroll back to mid November and start reading forward from there.

  17. Jupiter's Moon is in Antarctica? by fredrated · · Score: 2

    How long has it been there?

  18. Re:Quit calling it a moon by ma1wrbu5tr · · Score: 1

    I wasn't aware that Jupiter had a moon in Antarctica either.

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    Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
  19. Re: Jupiter is HUGE! by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

    cdreimer is obviously a time traveler from after 2620, when Uranus got renamed to put an end to "those" jokes once and for all.

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    This space unintentionally left blank.
  20. This would likely need a nuclear battery by BlueCoder · · Score: 2

    Such a nuclear battery isn't all that dangerous if it's contained. But we are talking about a foreign ocean. Eventually the thing is going to stop working, rust, and then deteriorate in that ocean. If there is life that will be a tragic thing even if it is a low grade nuclear product. There are protests on this planet on sending NASA devices up with those batteries for the off chance that it explodes and effectively becomes a dirty bomb.

  21. 2010 by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    All these worlds are yours except Europa Use them together Use them in peace. Not so sure I'd go there ;) LOL

  22. Re:Quit calling it a moon by magarity · · Score: 1

    That's no moon; that's yo mama https://www.youtube.com/watch?...