Buoyant Rover for under ice exploration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA

Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are developing the Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration, a technology that could one day explore oceans under the ice layers of planetary bodies. The prototype was tested in arctic lakes near Barrow, Alaska.

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The search for life beyond Earth needs robots. But to explore distant ocean worlds like Europa, we’ll need a new set of tools to drill through ice, reach faraway samples and cross difficult terrain. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently finished a series of prototypes that might make that exploration a little easier.

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