Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through Europa's icy shell

This would likely have three parts: a lander, an autonomous ice-thawing robot, and some sort of self-navigating submersible. Indeed, several groups from multiple countries already have working prototypes of ice-diving robots and smart submersibles that they are set to test in Earth's own frigid landscapes, from Alaska to Antarctica, in the next few years But Earth's oceans are pale simulacra of Europa's extreme environment. To plumb the ocean of this Jovian moon, engineers must work out a way to get missions to survive a never-ending rain of radiation that fries electronic circuits. They must also plow through an ice shell that's at least twice as thick as Mount Everest is tall. "There are a lot of hard problems that push up right against the limits of what's possible," says Richard Camilli, an expert on autonomous robotic systems at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Deep Submergence Laboratory.