cryobot
A long, pencil-shaped probe with a heated tip that can melt its way down
through a thick layer of ice and deploy equipment for returning data from
any watery environment that may lie below. Such devices will be used to
explore Lake Vostok and, eventually,
the sub-ice ocean hypothesized to exist on Europa
and some other large moons in the Solar System. Having penetrated through
to the bottom of the ice crust, cryobots on these missions will release
two principal devices for operating at interfaces where life might be expected
to occur: an ice-water interface station, which will monitor
conditions at the top of the watery sea, and a sediment exploration
station, which will descend to the sea-floor. The latter will also
release a hydrobot which will rise like
a bubble to the top of the sub-ice sea, taking measurements and searching
for signs of life as it goes.
Related categories
• TYPES
OF SPACECRAFT
• ASTROBIOLOGY
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