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NASA Tests a Drone To Explore Jupiter's Moon in Antarctica (popularmechanics.com)
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.
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.
Have gnu, will travel.
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.