A “SWARM” of tiny robot fish could hunt for alien life in hidden oceans on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
Nasa has revealed future-gazing footage of its prototype SWIM bots – built to brave otherworldly seas where humans have never been.
SWIM, which stands for Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers, is a project designed to look for extraterrestrial life.
Scientists have long believed that signs of past or present life could be found on Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus.
Sending humans for a dip in these alien oceans is a distant dream, but Nasa’s tiny robots could safely explore underwater.
The prototypes measure about 16.5 inches and weigh five pounds.
But Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the final version will be about three times smaller – about the size of a smartphone.
“People might ask, why is NASA developing an underwater robot for space exploration?,” said Nasa’s Ethan Schaler.
“It’s because there are places we want to go in the solar system to look for life, and we think life needs water.
“So we need robots that can explore those environments — autonomously, hundreds of millions of miles from home.”
Nasa’s test saw the prototype SWIM robots paddling around the 75-foot competition swimming pool at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The robots feature two propellers – plus four flaps for steering – to navigate underwater.
Importantly, the robots are designed to operate on their own, which is important given how far away from Earth they’d be while on a mission.
“It’s awesome to build a robot from scratch and see it successfully operate in a relevant environment,” Schaler said.
“Underwater robots in general are very hard, and this is just the first in a series of designs we’d have to work through to prepare for a trip to an ocean world.
“But it’s proof that we can build these robots with the necessary capabilities and begin to understand what challenges they would face on a subsurface mission.”
Here's what you need to know...
Jupiter has 95 moons – and Europa is the fourth-biggest.
Europa is around 390 million miles away from Earth, which is a stone’s throw when you consider the size of the universe.
It’s believed that beneath its icy crust, there’s a vast saltwater ocean.
And scientists hope that there is alien life lurking in these hidden oceans.
Nasa explains: “Europa may be one of the most promising places in our solar system to find present-day environments suitable for some form of life beyond Earth.
“Scientists believe a saltwater ocean lies beneath its icy shell, holding twice as much water as Earth’s global ocean.
“It also may have the chemical elements that are key ingredients to life.
“NASA launched Europa Clipper on Oct. 14, 2024, to determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.”
Picture Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS | Image processing: Kevin M. Gill CC BY 3.0
Nasa says that the robots would use an “underwater acoustic communication system”.
This would allow the bots to work out their positions and transmit data.
Nasa has also tested digital versions of the robots inside a computer simulation.
This allowed the space agency to replicate the harsh conditions of Europa.
In the simulation, Nasa unleashed a “virtual swarm” of 5-inch versions of the robots.
Nasa says that these swarms could consist of something like a dozen robots, sent “in four to five waves”.
And they’d be able to explore an area as large as three million cubic feet of water, with an approximate battery life of two hours.
The bad news is that the SWIM bots have already missed a key mission.
Nasa’s Europa Clipper craft launched on October 14, and will probe Jupiter’s moon Europa.
The craft is due to reach Europa in 2030, and will make 49 flybys of the moon.
Nasa says it hopes that the craft will be able to spot signs that the ocean hidden beneath Europa’s icy crust could sustain alien life.
The SWIM robots could then join a future mission to one of our solar system’s alien moons – potentially finding hard evidence of extraterrestrial life.
