Nuclear-powered tunnelling robot could help find life on Europa

Jupiter’s moon Europa has an icy surface that is thought to cover a liquid ocean, which is in contact with a rocky core. This environment contains the biochemical ingredients for life but accessing it to collect samples remains a major challenge.

“Estimates of the thickness of the ice shell range between 2 and 30km [1.2 and 18.6 miles] and is a major barrier any lander will have to overcome in order to access areas we think have a chance of holding biosignatures representative of life on Europa,” said Andrew Dombard, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

At a recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., Dombard and his colleagues proposed a solution in the form of a nuclear-powered tunnelling probe.

Dombard and D’Arcy Meyer-Dombard, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at UIC, are part of a group of scientists on the NASA Glenn Research COMPASS team, a multidisciplinary group of scientists and engineers tasked with designing technology and solutions for space exploration and science missions.