--- title: "NASA’s Nuclear-Powered Tunneling Bot Could Hunt for Life on Europa" description: "A nuclear-powered tunneling bot could burrow through Europa's icy shell to probe its composition and, potentially, access the watery darkness under it." date: "2018-12-16" modified: "2018-12-16" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/nasa-nuclear-powered-tunnel-bot-life-europa" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Exobiology" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "alien life" - "europa" - "NASA" - "tunnelbot" --- # NASA’s Nuclear-Powered Tunneling Bot Could Hunt for Life on Europa ![A nuclear-powered tunneling bot could burrow through Europa's icy shell to probe its composition and, potentially, access the watery darkness under it.]() *\Image: Alexander Pawlusik, LERCIP Internship Program NASA Glenn Research Center\* ## Pax Europa One of the [most promising spots]() to find life in the solar system beyond Earth is Europa, Jupiter's fourth-smallest moon. But even though scientists suspect the moon's liquid ocean might harbor living organisms, it's protected by a [solid layer of ice]() that could be as much as 30 kilometers (18 miles) deep. Now, researchers at with NASA's Glenn Research COMPASS team have [devised an idea]() for a probe that could access that ocean: a nuclear-powered tunneling bot that could burrow through the moon's icy shell to probe its composition and, potentially, access the watery darkness under it. ## Ice Limit The researchers dreamed up two versions of the "tunnelbot," one of which would use a [small nuclear reactor]() and the other of which would use a "radioactive heat source module." In both cases, the tunnelbot would use excess heat from its reactors to melt the ice as it traveled down. As it went, the tunnelbot would analyze the ice and search it for signs of current or extinct life, reporting back to Earth with a fiber optic cable connected to communication equipment at Europa's surface. It would even be equipped to explore lakes buried in the ice before it reached Europa's oceanic depths. ## Tunnel Vision The NASA-sponsored research is just a concept study. Deploying it would require years of work and extensive precautions against [damaging any potential ecosystem]() on Jupiter's moon — not to mention figuring out a way to transport the heavy bot to Europa. "We didn't worry about how our tunnelbot would make it to Europa or get deployed into the ice," said Andrew Dombard, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago who worked on the concept. "We just assumed it could get there and we focused on how it would work during descent to the ocean." **READ MORE:** [A nuclear-powered 'tunnelbot' to search for life on Jupiter's icy moon Europa]() \[*Phys.org*\] ***More on Europa:** [NASA Plans To “Listen” to the Ice of Europa to Find out What’s Beneath It]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()