Search For Alien Life: Robots Will Dig Through Moon Ice With Buzzsaws, Catapults

If we're ever going to find alien life in outer space, we may have to dig deep -- into the thick ice of a another planet's surface. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has put together a bunch of robot prototypes that could traverse and bore through ice on moons in the farthest reaches of our solar system, ones that scientists believe may contain liquid oceans and thus potentially could be harboring extraterrestrial life. NASA is developing robots, including ones with robotic claws, that could take samples on icy moons in the outer solar system as part of Earth's search for alien life. JPL says those moons might include Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons and a favorite of some scientists because it has internal heat as well as an underground ocean. There's also Europa, a moon of Jupiter; and Saturn's largest moon, Titan, where there's so much static electricity that the sand particles on its surface stick together so tightly you wouldn't need water to build a sand castle.