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Ocean-going Power Module - Seatrec

Away Teams & Field Reports, Commercial & Private Sector, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Ocean World Droid Power Source You Were Looking For

by Keith CowingJune 18, 2024June 18, 2024

When it comes to mapping new territory, NASA’s record swamps Lewis and Clark’s. And the space agency doesn’t only chart other stars and planets – a vantage point from space […]

2016: Alvin working on the East Pacific Rise, as viewed from a camera on an elevator (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Offworld Away Team Analog: New Opportunities and Untapped Scientific Potential in Earth’s Abyssal Ocean

by Keith CowingMay 23, 2024May 23, 2024

The abyssal ocean covers more than half of the Earth’s surface, yet remains understudied and underappreciated. In this Perspectives article, we mark the occasion of the Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin’s […]

An illustration of an early concept of Shapeshifter imagines the robots on Saturn's moon Titan. In the picture, the Shapeshifter breaks into smaller pieces that can investigate a methane waterfall from the sky. Shapeshifter is a developing concept for a transformational vehicle to explore treacherous, distant worlds. The flying amphibious robot is part of the early-stage research program NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), which offers several phases of funding to visionary concepts, helping turn ideas that sound like science fiction into science fact. JPL Principle Investigator Ali Agha envisions Shapeshifter as a mission to Saturn's moon Titan, the only other world in the solar system known to have liquid in the form of methane lakes, rivers and seas on its surface.

Exploration Gear & Tech, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Saturn, Titan

NASA Is Designing Shapeshifting Robots for Saturn’s Moons

by Keith CowingSeptember 25, 2019June 13, 2024

Mini robots that can roll, fly, float and swim, then morph into a single machine? Together they form Shapeshifter, a developing concept for a transformational vehicle to explore treacherous, distant […]

The ENDURANCE robot made its first exploration of Lake Bonney during the 2008-09 field season in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Scientists will return this year to complete the mapping of the west lobe of the lake. Photo Credit: Liz Kauffman/Antarctic Photo Library

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

ENDURANCE Robot Dives Into Ice-covered Lake Bonney In Antarctica

by Keith CowingMay 30, 2009May 11, 2024

The robot that scientists deployed last year into ice-covered Lake Bonney in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys isn’t small.