NASA engineers have spent a rugged, partly autonomous lander in the last decade, designed to detect Europea, one of Jupiter’s most complicated Moon. The space agency got cold legs on the project, but engineers are now targeting a new destination for investigation: Enceladus.
Europea has long been a major goal in discovering supernatural biology because scientists suspect that it harasses Subcutor ocean Under your snowy crust, potentially with microbial life. But the robot-wiking is associated with preservation, state-of-the-art software, and snow-drilling appendages-but it is never going anywhere.
Recently in a paper Science roboticsNASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineers underlined the design and test of what he once did Europea lander The prototype, a four-foot robot, was designed to avoid the cruel surface position of the Jovian Moon. The robot was designed to run – unlike the roll -aged area, collect samples, and drill in the icy crusts of Europe – with all the minimal guidance from the Earth, our planet and the moon, due to the major communication interval between 568 million miles (914 million kilometers), due to the major communication interval.
Designed to operate autonomously for hours at a time, botteen was equipped with a suit of stereoscopic cameras, a robotic arm, LED lights and special materials, which is quite difficult to bear rigid radiation and bone-flourning cold. The temperature on the moon is about -210 ° F (-134 ° C) to lower than a lower -370 ° F (-223 ° C) than its equator.
After years of development – Europea Lander completed its tests, including testing in JPL’s laboratories, advanced simulation, and a final area on the icy area in Alaska. It was ready to take the frosty Frontier of the solar system. But the space agency has now pulled the plug on the mission.
According to the team, the challenges of going to Europea-its radiation risk, immense distance, and short observation windows-are also challenging for the high-ups of NASA. And before you keep in mind Disastrous budget deduction Planned by the Trump administration, which falls from the agency’s funding from $ 7.3 billion to $ 3.9 billion. The lander, once a bold astrobiology initiative, is now mandatory moothball.
But the engineers are not giving up. They are now lobbying robots, to get a second shot-Naseladus, Saturn’s snow-covered moon, too A sub -station claims the ocean And has proved more favorable for the discovery of robots. Enceladus is still frigid, but there are less radiation and better access windows than in Europe.
Does the ice-wocker get a new strap on their semi-late life, it remains to be seen. But the robot was designed for a moonwalk – although a relatively rigid and clanky one – and it deserves its moment.
