The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has unveiled a plan to uncover swarms of robots to hunt for alien life on other planets in the solar system. The independent US agency has developed the Sensing with Independent Micro-Swimmers (SWIM) concept for exploring inhospitable planets and celestial bodies.
These cell phone-sized robots will be packed into an ice-melting probe that sinks through the thick shell of other planets, before a mechanism releases them underwater. Once they reach underwater, these robots will take measurements of the formerly impossible to reach oceans.
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The small robots will have their own propulsion system, ultrasound communications system and onboard computer. The personalised host sensor would help them to monitor temperature, salinity, pressure, acidity and biomarkers.
For achieving a stellar design, NASA’s Innovative Advance Concepts program awarded a $600,000 grant to a robotics mechanical engineer at the US agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The man, named Ethan Schaler, will be studying the feasibility and design options to create a 3D-printed prototype within the next two years.
Speaking about the robots, Schaler said, “With a swarm of small swimming robots, we are able to explore a much larger volume of ocean water and improve our measurements by having multiple robots collecting data in the same area”.
According to the US agency, the innovative design would help to increase the chances of detecting evidence of life on other planets and help to assess the potential habitability of distant planets.
The SWIM concept isn’t included in any NASA mission and the cell phone sized robots could be a part of the payload for the Europa Clipper mission in 2024.
According to a SWIM team scientist at NASA – Samuel Howell, “What if there’s signs of life over there but not where you entered the ocean? By bringing these swarms of robots withus, we’d be able to look ‘over there’ to explore much more of our environment than a single cryobot would allow”.
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