NASA it has just published the first images of the system that you can see on the screen both in the image that is located just above these lines as well as in two videos located in the extended entry. As you can see, we are talking about a completely autonomous drone that has been baptized as Europe Explorer and that it will be sent to Europa, the smallest of the four satellites of Jupiter.
This robot is the result of many years of investments in research and development that have resulted in Europa Explorer, a creation of the German company Bremen Robotics Innovation Center. This robot has been designed to get, when the time comes, to drill the surface of the moon Europa and send a drone to dive into its depths.
Europa Explorer stands out for its shape and structure as peculiar, not in vain and thanks to the data obtained by other missions such as the one that put NASA's Galileo satellite into orbit, we are talking about a small moon that, despite its size, Europe could have between two and three times more water than on Earth. Precisely these data put Europa in the crosshairs of space exploration.
NASA presents Europa Explorer, a drone in charge of exploring the seas of the Europa satellite
In the video that is located just above these lines, you can see a recreation of how you want to put this unique drone to work. Basically the idea is to make the autonomous robot land on the moon, make a tunnel in the ice surface whose length, it is calculated, would be about 15 kilometers and introduce the drone through this tunnel to begin its work.
This drone has the capacity to submerge up to 100 kilometers deep, which is the same that the satellite's ocean is estimated to have. To orient oneself, as it has transpired, a acoustic signal system. At the same time, everything that the drone can find on its way can be recorded. Once the assigned daily task is done, the drone will return to the starting point to charge its batteries and deliver the collected data to be sent to Earth.