HMN 2025: How Shelved Europa Lander mission idea might be used to discover Enceladus as a substitute

A group of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has outlined the decade-long growth and testing of what was initially often known as the Europa Lander prototype—{a partially} autonomous robotic designed to seek out out if Jupiter’s moon Europa harbors life beneath its icy floor.

In their paper published within the journal Science Robotics, the group describes the standards they utilized in designing their robotic, which might stroll round on the floor of the moon, relatively than roll, and drill down by way of its icy crust. They additionally share the way it carried out throughout testing in Alaska.

For a few years, scientists at NASA have been investigating the potential for sending a lander of some sort to both Enceladus or Europa—each have icy crusts that cowl a liquid-water ocean. The existence of water suggests the potential for life.

But this is able to current some very steep challenges. They are a lot farther away than different locations landers have been despatched, which suggests it might take for much longer to get there, as would communication alerts. Also, they each are extra extremely uncovered to radiation than Mars, although Europa is way more so than Enceladus—and each are extraordinarily chilly.

The window of visibility can be comparatively brief, particularly with Europa. Still, NASA has proceeded with plans to construct a robotic that might do the job, which began again in 2013.

The design by the group referred to as for a four-legged robotic that might stabilize itself on an icy floor. It would even have a stereoscopic digicam with an LED gentle and an arm to be used in sampling and drilling. And due to the communication lags, the robotic would have a pc onboard able to permitting the robotic to stroll and or work autonomously for hours at a time.

To create such a robotic, the group added particular options to just about all its components—supplies to guard towards radiation, sensors and response code to maintain the robotic steady whereas strolling no matter what it encountered, and a computer-vision system to evaluate terrain, samples collected and environmental circumstances. Another pc would decide what to do and the way whereas working with out steering.

The robotic the group constructed had all of the options they thought mandatory for a visit to Europa—they examined it first through simulations, then of their lab, and eventually, on the ice in Alaska, and have been happy with the outcomes. But then its mission was scrubbed. Officials liable for making such choices deemed a visit to Europa too prone to fail. Undaunted, the group is now pushing for it for use as a substitute on Enceladus.

© 2025