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NASA’s Buoyant Rover Just Dived in the Arctic, Could Explore Jupiter’s Moon Europa – Video

It’s a rover that deploys underwater but instead of using different means of propulsions, it rides on the other side of the thick ice layer. Its wheels roll along on the underside of the ice as if the ground would be upside down.
Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration 1 photo
Photo: NASA
Back in June, NASA would showcase its rover at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The two-wheeler’s presence 24 feet (7.3 meters) underwater at the science center helped researchers at the Agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory test the innovative rover’s systems.

“A lot of what we do in deep space is applicable to the ocean,” said Any Klesh, principal investigator for the rover at JPL and volunteer diver at the science center. “This is an early prototype for vehicles that could one day go to Europa and other planetary bodies with a liquid ocean covered by ice. It’s ideal for traveling under the ice shelf of an icy world.”

NASA’s JPL has just released a video of the rover – officially named Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration – being tested in Arctic lakes near Barrow, Alaska. They are currently using a tethered prototype, but the plan is eventually to have it exploring the depths while keeping a wireless connection with the surface.

There’s more to this rover then just space exploration. Their research in the Arctic also has another scientific purpose, that of studying the methane that’s trapped in these lakes and coming out of the permafrost. This way they are helping to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions that are affecting climate change.

And they are doing that while simultaneously building a vehicle and a scientific platform that serves as a precursor for something that they may use on places like Europa or Enceladus that harbors an ocean. How cool is that, right?

To make sure you get a better picture of this thing, we’ll just leave you with NASA’s video.

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