NASA testing underwater robot, practicing for Jupiter’s moon Europa

NASA has begun testing the Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctiC Explorer, or ENDURANCE, in Wisconsin’s Lake Mendota in preparation for a trip to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

ENDURANCE is a NASA-funded project designed to make 3D maps of underwater environments, take microbial samples, and gather other data in deep waters.

Following the tests in Wisconsin, ENDURANCE will be heading off to the Antarctic for more testing in the permanently ice-covered West Lake Bonney.

Finally, sometime well into the future, ENDURANCE, or a similar robot based on the design, will head off to Jupiter to explore its moon Europa. It will have to navigate Europa’s oceans which are trapped beneath the moon’s icy surface.

When will this happen? What will they find on Europa? No one can be sure, but we could be in for some interesting discoveries.