Ice Transit and Performance Analysis for Cryorobotic Subglacial Access Missions on Earth and Europa

Astrobiology, vol. 23, pp. 1135–1152

Abstract

Ice-covered ocean worlds, such as the Jovian moon Europa, are some of the prime targets for planetary exploration due to their high astrobiological potential. While upcoming space exploration missions, such as the Europa Clipper and JUICE missions, will give us further insight into the local cryoenvironment, any conclusive life detection investigation requires the capability to penetrate and transit the icy shell and access the subglacial ocean directly. Developing robust, autonomous cryorobotic technology for such a mission constitutes an extremely demanding multistakeholder challenge and requires a concentrated interdisciplinary effort between engineers, geoscientists, and astrobiologists. An important tool with which to foster cross-disciplinary work at an early stage of mission preparation is the virtual testbed. In this article, we report on recent progress in the development of an ice transit and performance model for later integration in such a virtual testbed. We introduce a trajectory model that, for the first time, allows for the evaluation of mission-critical parameters, such as transit time and average/overall power supply. Our workflow is applied to selected, existing cryobot designs while taking into consideration different terrestrial, as well as extraterrestrial, deployment scenarios. Specific analyses presented in this study show the tradeoff minimum transit time and maximum efficiency of a cryobot and allow for quantification of different sources of uncertainty to cryobot's trajectory models.

Authors 4

1. Marc S. Boxberg corresponding Aachen Chair of Methods for Model‐based Development in Computational Engineering

   RWTH Aachen University · University of Göttingen

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Methods for Model-based Development in Computational Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Computational Geoscience, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

2. Qian Chen Aachen Chair of Methods for Model‐based Development in Computational Engineering

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Methods for Model-based Development in Computational Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

3. Ana‐Catalina Plesa

   Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Berlin, Germany

4. Julia Kowalski Aachen Chair of Methods for Model‐based Development in Computational Engineering

   RWTH Aachen University · University of Göttingen

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Methods for Model-based Development in Computational Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Computational Geoscience, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany