Abstract
The next decades of space exploration will focus on Ocean Worlds –
especially Europa, Enceladus, and Titan – whose liquid oceans beneath
kilometers of icy crust are some of the most likely locations beyond
Earth to harbor life. NASA is developing numerous ocean-access mission
concepts, including the Scientific Exploration Subsurface Access
Mechanism for Europa (SESAME) class of drilling robots to penetrate the
ice and access these aquatic environments. We propose developing SWIM –
Sensing with Independent Micro-swimmers – to dramatically expand the
capabilities of SESAME-class ocean-access robotic missions and
significantly increase their likelihood of detecting evidence of
habitability / biomarkers / life once they reach the ocean-ice
interface. SWIM consists of dozens of ~100 cm3 scale,
swimming micro-robots (micro-swimmers) equipped with MEMS sensors,
propelled by miniature actuators, and wirelessly controlled with
ultrasound. The micro-swimmers are deployed individually or as a swarm
from a single SESAME robot mothercraft, which has limited mobility once
reaching / anchoring at the ocean-ice interface. SWIM enables active
sampling of ocean water beyond the reach of the SESAME robot (increasing
the chances of detecting biomarkers), as well as temporally- and
spatially-distributed measurement of desired ocean properties,
habitability metrics, and potential biomarkers (infeasible with a single
robot).