NASA’s scientists and researchers are working to develop new kinds of robots that can search for life forms on other planets in space and the idea of smartphone-sized robots that can swim in icy oceans to find evidence of life forms has been awarded a significant amount as part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Check out the details right below!
NASA, via a recent official press release, announced that it plans to develop swarms of tiny swimmer robots that will be able to push through frozen crusts of icy oceans and dig deeper to find life forms on distant planets. These robots, dubbed SWIM (Sensing With Independent Micro-Swimmers), will be packed inside a narrow ice-melting probe that will enable them to melt ice crusts in frozen water bodies to go deeper to look for life forms.
In the future, NASA plans to deploy these wedge-shaped SWIM robots, which are around 5-inch long and 3-5 cubic inches in volume, on the Europa Clipper mission that is scheduled for 2024. And as the SWIM robots can “flock” together to collect relevant data (an idea inspired by fish or birds), the margin of error would be minimal.
