One Piece Discoveries » Europa http://www.watchonepiecepoint.com Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:28:25 +0000 en hourly 1 DepthX Robot for Mission to Europa http://www.watchonepiecepoint.com/2009/09/depthx-robot-for-mission-to-europa/ http://www.watchonepiecepoint.com/2009/09/depthx-robot-for-mission-to-europa/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:24:52 +0000 M.H.M http://www.watchonepiecepoint.com/?p=244 It has been a NASA dream to see someday they can use a DepthX-like Robot to explore Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter. Being a mechanical-means for deep sea exploration, DeathX has a good design for the scientists to explore a new world for human. Astrobiologists have long suspected that frozen Europa harbors liquid water – making it one of the most probable places in our solar system to support life. A robot like DepthX could eventually be launched into space aboard a probe, descends through Europa’s frozen surface in …

]]> It has been a NASA dream to see someday they can use a DepthX-like Robot to explore Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter. Being a mechanical-means for deep sea exploration, DeathX has a good design for the scientists to explore a new world for human. Astrobiologists have long suspected that frozen Europa harbors liquid water – making it one of the most probable places in our solar system to support life. A robot like DepthX could eventually be launched into space aboard a probe, descends through Europa’s frozen surface in a bullet-shaped, heat-generating capsule, and be released into the frigid, mysterious waters below. The robot will be smart enough to decide where to go from there to optimize the chance of discovering new life.

Europa

How it Works?

1. Moving Towards Life
By monitoring temperature, acidity, oxygen and other gradients, DepthX sniffs for environments most likely to support life and then heads towards sites of biological interest. Along the way, it creates maps of the new world, keeping track of areas already explored and ensuring that It can get back to the capsule to “phone home”.

RobotX

2. Gathering Evidence
Reaching a promising site – a hydrothermal vent, say – DepthX takes pictures and uses image-processing software to discern patterns of color and shape that indicate microbial life. “if you see yellows, oranges and greens, something is up”.

3. Identifying Aliens
Finally, DepthX takes water samples for microscopic analysis. A machine vision system will look for things that are critter-like. The samples will be dyed so that when illuminated by light, the DNA of the organisms fluoresces.

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