Into the Ice: NASA Ocean Moons

Image: Alaska Ice Caves. Unique environment perfect for study and testing ice exploration technology. 

NASA new Missions to explore the Oceans of the Moons of Jupiter and Saturn are on countdown and actions are already on their way to go deep “Into the Ice”.

Moon Enceladus of Saturn -recently revealed in its full glory by the Cassini flyby and the Moon of Saturn Europa are back to back competing in the race for the search of life beyond our planet. While being two completely different Worlds both Moons -like other celestial bodies, home a vast ocean hidden beneath a global ice surface. Recent studies are discovering key details for the coming missions and new impressive technology is driving the exploration forward. 

The big question is: How to get through the ice and reach the ocean?

Motherboard Vice -as well as all massive media news channels reported on the last weeks of April that NASA “Planned a Journey to an Ocean at the Center of an Icy Moon”. 

“In Jules Verne’s classic science fiction, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Professor Otto Lidenbrock and his company descend into an Icelandic volcano to explore it in the name of science, discover a vast subterranean ocean among other unexpected wonders, and must resiliently survive the experience to complete their mission. This is exactly what we want to do in reality on Europa and Enceladus,” the description of Masahiro Ono´s Icy-moon Cryovolcano Explorer ICE -selected proposal of NASA NIAC took over the media on late April.  

But even before designed a lander scientists need to know as much as they can about the ice environment and the ocean environment that a lander would encounter. New studies are revealing details of the ice surface of both Moons.

Nature World News reported on May 9 that Cassini Spacecraft discovered jets of gas on the Icy Moon of Saturn Enceladus. NASA expected the Moon to Jet Gas and Dust when closer to Saturn -affected by the gravity of the Giant but they observed the opposite reaction. The Moon burst out gas and dust when farther away from the orbiting planet. 

“At first, the data from that observation had scientists scratching their heads. What they saw didn't fit their predictions,” the media reported. 

“Exactly how or why that's happening is far from clear, but the observation gives theorists new possibilities to ponder about the twists and turns in the plumbing under the moon's frozen surface,” Nature World News reported.

Beneath the surface of the ice of Enceladus as well as beneath the surface of the ice of Europa massive oceans are believed to home the ingredients of life. 

Despite Cassini is an active mission exploring Saturn and its Moons the recent discoveries of the mission are leading to the instalment of a new mission to explore Enceladus. The Enceladus Life Finder ELF proposed in 2015 for funding, with a launch day set for late 2021 has the sole purpose of getting into the ice and deep into the ocean to assess the internal aquatic ocean of the Moon. 

On the other hand the Mission to Europa while being official has a similar launch set date for early 2022. On April 19 this year BBC reported that European scientists aiming to attract the interest of the European Space Agency ESA -involved in the NASA Europa Clipper Mission are meeting to consider the best options for the exploration of Europa.

“The concepts range from remote-sensing instruments to penetrators that would try to burrow beneath Europa's ice-encrusted surface,” BBC reported. 

At first sight the addition of a lander to land and go into the ice of Europa seems to be the most obvious but NASA assures that flyby orbiters -equipped with the right instrumentations can also “virtually penetrate the ice and virtually dive into the ocean of Europa” without ever landing on its surface.  

The latest render and details of the Europa Clipper Mission made public by NASA goes with this type of flyby satellite technology and revealed what the spacecraft would look like and what technology it would use. 

“The highly capable, radiation-tolerant spacecraft would enter into a long, looping orbit around Jupiter to perform repeated close flybys of Europa”...equipped with “two large solar arrays, ice-penetrating radar antennas, saucer-shaped high-gain antenna, magnetometer boom, remote-sensing palette and other science instrument payload” will explore “a World that shows strong evidence for an Ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust and which could host conditions favorable for life,” NASA assures.

Others still argue that the best way to explore Europa is by adding a lander and PlanetaryBlog recently reported that a Lander is “by law part of the NASA Clipper Budget”. 

Of course NASA itself is moving forward in the developing of new radical designs for exploration of the oceans in distant Moons and Planets. On April 12 JPL reported that NASA selected 13 proposals -including four from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL in Pasadena, California through NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts NIAC. 

The new  proposals made international headlines in the following weeks for their daring innovations. 

The NIAC program invests in “transformative architectures through the development of pioneering technologies”. Among the 13 selected, 3 are directly or closely designed for the exploration of distant oceans.

Other proposals selected include; a technology which could use elements present in the environment of Mars to recycle and print necessary electronics used in space missions, a ultra-thin spacecraft which could have the power to “wrap” around space debri and clean up the Earth's atmosphere teeming in space junk and a technology which could enable the search for planets beyond our solar system by detecting “echoes” of the planets.

All NIAC proposals received funding and passed from Phase I of development to Phase II.  

"The latest NIAC selections include a number of concepts for planetary and robotic exploration," Steve Jurczyk NASA's associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington said. 

"NASA continues to value early stage concept studies for our future missions," Jurczyk ended it.

“The 2016 portfolio of Phase I concepts cover a wide range of innovations selected for their potential to revolutionize future aerospace missions. Such breakthroughs hold the promise of accelerating NASA's progress toward its goals of exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, missions to an asteroid and Mars, and other priority areas in all of NASA's mission directorates. NIAC partners with forward-thinking scientists, engineers and citizen inventors from across the nation to help maintain America's leadership in air and space,” NASA added. 

“Several concepts have already been studied to explore these moon's’ subsurface oceans using autonomous underwater vehicles ROVs. However, access to subsurface ocean remains to be an outstanding challenge. The proposed concept is to deploy a surface-to-subsurface robotic system, namely Icy-moon Cryovolcano Explorer ICE,” Masahiro Ono of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory explained his proposal which was selected by NIAC.

While some Ocean experts applaud the design of Masahiro they continue to insist in more radical approaches such as the inclusion of multiple small ROVs with autonomous exploration capabilities. Several smaller ROVs have certain benefits over one large ROV they can act as a network, be autonomous, explore more grounds -or water and their numbers can act as back up.    

Masahiro´s ICE design is inspiringly simple. The ICE includes three modules a Surface Module SM -designed to securely land on the surface of the Moon, a Descent Module -which detaches from the SM to descend into ice vents and Autonomous Vehicles which NASA calls AUVs but oceanographers usually call ROVs. 

Ice Vents, Ice cracks, Ice Volcanoes and Ice Gas Jets have already been established to exists in the dynamic ever changing geography of the Moon of Jupiter Europa and the Moon of Saturn Enceladus as well as in other celestial bodies. 

Masahiro proposal explains that ICE would land near an Ice Vent, deploy a Module which will be able to descend the Ice Vent by using a combination of roving, climbing, rappelling, and hopping, “like an experienced human alpinist” and once it reaches the ocean below the Vent deploy the ROVs for ocean exploration. Some also urge Masahiro to consider adding ways to drill or melt an ice sheet as Ice Vents could be blocked by ice at its deep ocean end. 

The ICE technology is equipped with the latest communication gear which would allow the surface module to communicate with Earth as well as relay relative information. However because communication data has a hard time getting through water and through a thick layer of ice the ROVs deep down into the ice and diving the oceans require special gear to communicate with the surface module. Masahiro answered to this problem by adding a “cable” to the ROVs. While not an elegant answer and while “cable transfer technology” can limit the movement of a ROV it would take care of the problem and is a good first response to the issue. Oceanographers again urge NASA researchers to look deep into the developments of technology used today in our own Planet which exists and operates in ice-ocean environments.  

“Since water blocks radio waves, communication and localization are particularly significant challenges for ROVs. DM of ICE communicates with AUVs though acoustic communication,” Masahiro recognized the problem. 

The ICE Spacecraft does bring have unique benefits. “First, it enables in-situ science in a cryovolcano vent”.  Although orbiters can perform in-situ science they are not actually into the ice and ocean. “ICE enables the exploration of subsurface oceans by providing an access to it...(and)...it enables the operation of AUVs (ROVs) in subsurface ocean by providing three essential services: communication, localization, and power,” Masahiro said. 

Now Masahiro is working hard to develop the Phase II of his proposal. He will have to develop mission concepts, identify risks, proposed mitigation toi risks identified, perform analysis of the mission and compare technology. 

Masahiro Ice-Ocean technology is not the only one being developed for the sector which seeks to explore the Oceans of Outer Space. 

Some developments -while may seem to be unconnected could in fact empower and accelerate as well as bring within budget the exploration of oceans beyond our own planet. 

The Guardian reported on April 8 that SpaceX -Company developing Rocket Falcon Technology for NASA Missions landed for the first time a Falcon 9 Rocket in an ocean platform. Money CNN reported on May 6  2016 that SpaceX “Did it Again” and landed a second Falcon 9 in an ocean platform proving their success was far from a lucky shot. Recovering Rockets will allow for Space Missions to reduce costs dramatically. Before SpaceX figured out how to recover the rocket these costly machines were lost into the depths of our planet. Will the reuse of expensive rockets used to launch spacecrafts and other payloads into space be put into the daily business of space exploration? Time will tell. 

Another NIAC proposal which also received funding and is in Phase II aims for Pluto and includes a lander from start off in its design. Pluto recent studies reveal that an ocean could also be present in the distant planet. 

The "Fusion-Enabled Pluto Orbiter and Lander" proposal  concept provides “game-changing propulsion and power capabilities that would revolutionize interplanetary travel”.

The proposal focuses on the use of the Direct Fusion Drive DFD based on the Princeton Field-Reversed Configuration PFRC fusion reactor under development at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. “The mission context we are proposing is delivery of a Pluto orbiter with a lander,” developers stated. The Pluto Lander would probably be fit to explore the oceans of the planet. This proposal could also set the foundation for the exploration of oceans in planets beyond our solar system given the distance which the Mission would have to undertake.

Finally a third NIAC proposal -ànd perhaps one of the most interested selected by NASA and now in NIAC Phase II is the NIMPH  or Nano Icy Moons Propellant Harvester.

“The latest...Survey lists multiple sample return missions to the Moon, Mars and Jovian moons as high priority goals. In particular, a mission to Jupiter's Europa is a top science goal as its liquid oceans holds the potential for discovery of extra-terrestrial life,” the proposal's description kicks off. 

“ExoTerra's NIMPH project develops a CubeSat scale in-situ resource utilization system that harvests water to enable low-cost sample return missions to icy moons through micro-landers,” the proposal of ExoTerra LLC stated. 

Big words? Too complicated to understand? Well actually the project  is also inspiringly simple. ExoTerra wants to develop a nano-spacecraft and nano-lander and nano-explorers. That is right, nano, as in very small. 

The proposal would not only introduce concepts of nano exploration but reduce costs of by using the CubeSat Industry, solar power arrays and other technology already in use diverse NASA and International missions. 

For some years now NASA has been most interested in developing nanotechnology and they have already proven to be very good at it. 

NASA in May will be deploying from the International Space Station two Nodes of Small Satellites. The Small Sats -actually one of them fits in an open hand will prove that they can perform network operations and communicate among themselves. 

Satellites in the past used to be, and still today usually are large and expensive, weighing over 6 thousand pounds and costing over 850 million USD. In the report “How a NASA Team Turned a Smartphone into a Satellite Business,” NASA explains how small satellites came to be. 

Pete Klupar Director of engineering at Ames Research Center “was fond of pulling a government-issued smartphone out of his pocket during speeches and wondering aloud why the phone, which had a faster processor and better sensors than many satellites, cost so little in comparison -after which he slipped the phone back in his pocket and carried on”.

“An Ames researcher named Chris Boshuizen took Klupar’s musings to heart. Having seen the phone schtick before, Boshuizen and his colleague Will Marshall once interjected during a talk by Klupar when he began to muse aloud about satellite costs,” NASA explains. 

“We said, ‘Pete, don’t put that back in your pocket,’” Boshuizen recalls. “‘We’re going to make that into a satellite.’

By September 2013 a NASA Team originally led by Boshuizen and Marshall successfully launched its first PhoneSats into low-Earth orbit at a cost of just $7,000 each. 

"...using traditional techniques, these delta-V intensive missions result in large initial masses and have cost estimates in the 1 to 5 Billion USD range.  To reduce the cost of these missions, ExoTerra taps into both the rapidly developing CubeSat industry, in-situ resource utilization, and the work being performed with high power solar arrays and electric propulsion under the asteroid redirect program.  Combined, these offer the ability to drastically reduce the initial mass and cost of sample return missions. ExoTerra's NIMPH project develops a CubeSat scale in-situ resource utilization system…(that) enables low-cost sample return missions to icy moons through micro-landers," Exo Terra Resource Proposal description states.

Whether on a Falcon Rocket or hitching a ride, on Flyby Mission or Lander Equipped, Going Nano or Going Big, to Europa or to Enceladus or beyond, on a budget or lose, any program that seriously thinks about searching for life in the Outer Space Oceans will have to go “Into the Ice”...

...in the interest of science, and all of humanity...