Universe Today
What probes can be used to explore the depths of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, and other ocean worlds throughout the solar system? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of researchers participated through the Ocean Worlds Reconnaissance and Characterization of Astrobiological Analogs (ORCAA) project to investigate how cryobots could be used to explore the oceans of other worlds in our solar system.
For the study, the researchers conducted a 2023 field investigation in the Juneau Icefield in Alaska, which is home to 100 small glaciers and more than 40 large glaciers while comprising an area of approximately 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers). The team has a second field investigation scheduled for summer 2025, with the first taking place at Echo Glacier and the upcoming investigation taking place at North Basin.
For the 2023 investigation, the researchers tested a hot water drill designed to penetrate Echo Glacier and reach the bedrock, collect samples, and return them to the surface. in the end, the researchers identified small amounts of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and chlorophyll-a (CHLa), which are used for cell energy and photosynthesis, respectively, both in the lake and in the borehole, with higher amounts of ATP and CHLa being identified in red snow algae.
The researchers also evaluated the overall operations aspect of the study, which they plan on improving upon in the upcoming summer 2025 field investigation to North Basin. The major difference between the 2023 and 2025 field investigations will be the use of a cryobot in place of the hot water drill, which will be used specifically to simulate drilling through the ice shell of Europa.
The study concludes by stating, “We will simulate complete command cycles and Cryobot autonomy to determine how and when scientists and autonomous systems discover indicators of change in the physical environment, habitability, and biological communities, and to characterize the temporal and spatial fidelity requirements of observations.”
This study comes as NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is currently en route to the icy moon and is slated to conduct 49 elliptical orbits of Europa starting in April 2030. The reason elliptical orbits were chosen for the mission design is to avoid prolonged exposure to Jupiter’s massive radiation belts, which could potentially damage critical spacecraft components. Using its suite of scientific instruments, Clipper will evaluate the habitability potential of Europa, obtain new surface images, and identify “hot spots” where the icy shell is thinnest, which could indicate locations for future landers to drill.
A potential follow-up mission to Europa Clipper is the Europa Lander, which is a NASA mission concept designed to identify biosignatures on Europa’s surface and within approximately 10 centimeters (3.9 inches). While Europa Lander isn’t designed to drill through the ice, it can nonetheless test vital technologies and instruments that could be used on a future mission that will drill through the ice to explore the subsurface ocean, which is estimated to contain more than double the liquid water as Earth’s global oceans.
Along with Europa, the other ocean worlds in the solar system include the dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto, two of Jupiter’s other moons, Ganymede and Callisto, Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, Titan, Mimas, and Neptune’s moon, Triton. Of these worlds, Enceladus exhibits the strongest evidence of a liquid subsurface ocean, as NASA’s Cassini spacecraft first discovered geysers that discharge portions of this interior ocean into space. During its historic mission, Cassini even flew through these geysers and identified the presence of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and organic compounds.
How will ORCAA cryobots help scientists explore Europa and other ocean worlds in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
