A radioisotope powered cryobot for penetrating the Europan ice shell Available to Purchase

The Cryobot team at JPL has been working on the design of a Cryo-Hydro Integrated Robotic Penetrator System (CHIRPS), which can be used to penetrate the Mars North Polar Cap or the thick sheet ice surrounding Jupiter’s moon, Europa. The science for either one of these missions is compelling. For both Mars and Europa the major scientific interest is to reach regions where there is a reservoir of water that may yield signs of past or extant life. Additionally, a Mars polar cap penetration would help us understand both climatic and depositional histories for perhaps as far back as 20 million years. Similarly, penetration of the Europa ice sheet would allow scientists to unravel the mysteries surrounding the thick ice crust, its chemical composition, and subsurface ocean properties. Extreme mass and power constraints make deep drilling/coring impractical. The best way to explore either one of these environments is a cryobot mole penetrator vehicle, which carries a suite of instruments suitable for sampling and analyzing the ice or ocean environments. This paper concentrates on a Europa deep ice (i.e., kilometers thick) application of the CHIRPS, and introduces the reader to the vehicle design with focus on the use of radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) technology as the primary heat (1 kW total) and power source for the robotic vehicle. Radioisotope heater unit (RHU) milli-watt power systems (120 mW total) are also employed to power the mini-radiowave ice transceivers, which are used to relay data through the ice up to the surface lander. The results of modeling and design work for both of these areas are discussed in this paper. Although radioisotope power is baselined for the Europa flight version of the cyrobot, no decision on the final design of the cryobot will be made until the environmental review process is complete. Any use of the cryobot for Mars or Europa will conform to all environmental and planetary protection requirements.