Space pioneer: The ENDURANCE robot will dive to the bottom of an Antarctic lake this month. Such tests fuel research into future space-based robots that could one day explore oceans on other planets.
Credit: John Rummel, NASA
Looking something like a large yellow seed pod, a submersible robot is preparing to go where nobody has ever gone before.
If all works according to plan, the probe will shortly be lowered through a hole in the ice covering a lake in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. After a thorough search around, it should return to the waiting researchers brimming with useful data.
The probe, called ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer) is the NASA-funded brainchild of William Stone, president of Stone Aerospace Corporation in Austin, Texas.
Its purpose is to use sonar to map, navigate, and explore unknown, dark environments, beginning in Antarctica, but possibly someday extending into space. NASA's involvement stems from a program that helps develop methods for exploring remote environments.
Deserts of ice
The current target, Lake Bonney, is six kilometers long, 900 m wide, and perpetually covered with several metres of ice. It's been studied for years, but ENDURANCE, which could begin its explorations this month, will open an entirely new frontier.
The lake is part of the Dry Valleys, which lie more than 3,000 km south of New Zealand. But the term "dry" is a misnomer. "They're 'dry' because there's basically no glacier," said Peter Doran, an Earth scientist at the University of Illinois in Chicago, USA.
That's because mountains block the largest ice sheets; though there are still several smaller glaciers spilling off the 3,000-metre peaks.
ENDURANCE isn't like the Mars Rovers or other remote-operated probes. Once deployed, it's on its own to systematically explore, take water samples, and find its way back. "It will have to think on its own," said Doran, outlining the plan at a scientific meeting.
Back-up plan
There is, of course, a backup in case the robot submarine (named for British Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's famous ship) gets lost. If necessary, the scientists can locate it magnetically, drill a new hole, and send down a team of divers to retrieve it.
Not only is it too valuable (US$ 2.3 million) to lose, but it is also supposed to be environmentally friendly. "We were required to [have such a plan], rather than leaving that hunk of metal down in the lake for all eternity," Doran said.
Not that anyone really expects the probe to get lost.
