Seeking alien life, Cornell 'eel' rover captures $100K
- Rover could determine if alien life exists on Jupiter's ice-covered moon, Europa
- The funding will support a nine-month feasibility study on the eel-like rover
- Rover would use tentacle-like structures to create electrical current from Jupiter's magnetic field
An eel-like, soft-robotic rover could determine whether alien life exists on Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa.
Cornell University mechanical and aerospace engineering professors Mason Peck and Robert Shepherd received a $100,000 grant from NASA for the amphibious-rover project. Peck is NASA's former chief technologist.
The funding will support a nine-month feasibility study on the eel-like rover. The amphibious robot would scavenge power from Jupiter's magnetic field and explore Europa's salty, ice-covered ocean.
"We're trying to find out if the soft-robotics approach makes sense for exploring an ocean, which we think it does," Peck said.
In soft robotics, engineers use pliable materials to build robots. The rover would have synthetic skin and mimic eel physiology.
Such a design could avoid spending energy to support a heavy robot when there is no need to do so, Shepherd said.
"It makes more sense to look at what exists in our own oceans and try to synthesize a robot that mimics their functions, and they are primarily soft creatures (with more cartilage than bones)," Shepherd said. "A bio-inspired design may present opportunities that haven't been explored before."
The trick will be making the rover move efficiently, according to Peck.
The rover would use "tentacle-like structures" to create an electrical current from Jupiter's magnetic field, according to Peck's proposal.
"The energy that we think might be available here is going to be on the order of one to 10 watts, if we're lucky, and that's the power of a Christmas tree light bulb," he said.
The electrical current would be used to convert Europa's ocean water into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which would serve as stored energy, and the gas would power the rover in bursts, Peck said.
"We're using that gas combination as a kind of explosive to open and close the body of the eel, to make it propel itself," Peck said.
The advantage of scavenging power from water and Jupiter's magnetic field is that the rover will not have to carry its power supply, lowering project costs.
Nuclear power could be a viable alternative to Peck and Shepherd's design, but it stands to be more expensive, Peck added.
"Cost savings alone might help speed up discoveries," Peck said.
The team is developing a synthetic skin for the robot that would cast light for camera, and the lights would be pressure-sensitive so the rover could have a sense of touch, Shepherd said. The rover also could have a chemical sensor that tests the alien ocean for life, Peck added.
"We're trying to explore a completely different application here, and we might be successful or we might fail," he said, "but I think if no one takes the risks, we'll never succeed."
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