NASA’s Miniature Robots Prepare for a Frosty Adventure on the Lunar Surface

Existence on Earth in the initial days of 2025 has been challenging, making it reassuring to discover that efforts to explore whether other celestial bodies can sustain life are still very much ongoing.

Scientists express significant interest in moons such as Europa, which orbits Jupiter, and Enceladus, which orbits Saturn, as they harbor substantial oceans beneath their frozen surfaces, according to Wired.

What’s the reasoning?

Because abundant water heightens the prospects of sustaining numerous forms of life.

NASA has been actively investigating the possibilities:

• In October, it dispatched its Europa Clipper probe to analyze the environment on Europa.
• Its Jet Propulsion Laboratory is focused on a project named SWIM (Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers), designed to deploy miniature autonomous underwater devices to investigate the oceans of the icy moons.

The approximately 12-centimeter-long, wedge-form bots will ride aboard a machine referred to as a cryobot, which will harness nuclear energy to liquefy the frigid outer layer of these moons and transport the bots to the submerged oceans.

Each cryobot is expected to carry around 48 of the robots and will gradually pass through the ice crust over several years.

Sink or swim

Much like anyone learning to swim, the bots were required to rehearse beforehand: They successfully navigated through a swimming pool. However, these were 16.5-inch 3D models executing the swim.

• The bots must be manufactured to roughly 3 times smaller for space travel and should be equipped with a wireless underwater acoustic communication system to transmit data back to Earth.

• They will also be fitted with a chip capable of measuring parameters such as water temperature, pressure, and chemical makeup to evaluate which moons may be suitable for life.

Considering that collaboration fosters success, the bots will operate in teams to explore the same regions, ensuring that no icy moon artifact is overlooked.