NASA’s New Underwater Rover

NASA has been busy with work and new projects lately, including a new rover designed for water worlds. The bot’s name is BRUIE which stands for Buoyant Rover for Under Ice Exploration. The rover could be used on planetary worlds such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. 

Water worlds like these are especially promising potential places for life because we know that life on Earth started in the water. If the earliest living things on Earth lived in the oceans, it would be a good bet that if there’s life anywhere out there it would be found in watery worlds similar to our primitive Earth.

BRUIE will be able to dive deep beneath the surface layer of ice to explore ocean depths that are normally hidden. It is about to start testing its abilities in the icy waters of Antarctica. It will measure lots of different data, including water salinity, pressure, and temperature.

BRUIE has already been tested in the waters of Alaska and the Arctic. Trials in the Antarctic will put to the test BRUIE’s endurance in extreme cold. In the water, BRUIE is submerged under the ice. Due to its buoyancy, it floats to the top of the sheet of ice that covers the ocean. Built with wheels, BRUIE can roll along the underside of the Antarctic ice.

Lead engineer Andy Klesh explained why BRUIE was designed this way. “We’ve found that life often lives at interfaces, both the sea bottom and the ice-water interface at the top. Most submersibles have a challenging time investigating this area, as ocean currents might cause them to crash, or they would waste too much power maintaining position. BRUIE, however, uses buoyancy to remain anchored against the ice and is impervious to most currents. In addition, it can safely power down, turning on only when it needs to take a measurement, so it can spend months observing the under-ice environment.”