Underwater Submarine Robots!

One of the darlings of the science teams here is the ARTEMIS Group. Besides being excellent volleyball players, this group of nerds is taking the world of robotics by storm. They designed an underwater, unmanned robot named ARTEMIS.

ARTEMIS (Autonomous Rover/airborne-radar Transects of the Environment beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf).

Every day they lower the self-propelled robot through a hole in the sea ice and let it cruise around under the ice shelf whilst taking protein samples. Since GPS signals cannot penetrate the thick ice, they use a homing-device tracking system. It is a glorified remote-control submarine.

In 30 years the end goal is to be able to launch a light-weight version of this robot to Europa. Europa is one of the moons orbiting Mars believed to have water on it. Europa supposedly has the most similar atmospheric conditions to earth in our galaxy (that we know of). A Mars rover will then transport the robot to the nearest body of water and launch it under the sea ice.

In 100 years the eventual goal is to have enough data and exploratory research to start growing food and possibly start colonizing the moon of Europa.

(Typical Americans….going out of our way to hang out with Europeans).

This is the first of many prototypes. After much deliberation, my volleyball teammates and I have decided that this ARTEMIS model is much too large for planetary exploration. To be able to launch it into space, ARTEMIS needs to be at least 1/6^th of its current size. This will involve many years of prototypes and testing in both the Arctic and the Antarctic ocean waters.

"The solar system is littered with oceans. The Earth is an oddball; it wears its oceans on the outside. The others have their oceans on the inside, below an insulating layer of ice."

Allen Stern - Planetary Scientist
Popular Mechanics

The ARTEMIS scientists overseeing their robot launch