Acoustic communication in deep ice at ocean worlds

Yoseph Bar-Cohen; Xiaoqi Bao; Hyeong Jae Lee; Benjamin Hockman; Mircea Badescu; Stewart Sherrit; Shyh-Shiuh Lih

doi:10.1117/12.2582582

22 March 2021 Acoustic communication in deep ice at ocean worlds

Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Xiaoqi Bao, Hyeong Jae Lee, Benjamin Hockman, Mircea Badescu, Stewart Sherrit, Shyh-Shiuh Lih

Proceedings Volume 11593, Health Monitoring of Structural and Biological Systems XV; 1159322 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2582582
Event: SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation, 2021, Online Only

Abstract

One of NASA priorities is the in-situ exploration of ocean worlds in the solar system where potentially there might be life under the ice shell. This requires reaching the ocean below extremely cold through significant deep ice. Jupiter’s moon, Europa, is such a challenging body, where it is estimated to have a 40 km thick ice shell. An approach for reaching the ocean has been conceived using a melting probe Cryobot concept that has been studied for a potential future mission. A lander is assumed to be the platform from which the Cryobot would be deployed. The ice penetrating vehicle concept consists of a cylindrical, narrow-body probe that encases a radioisotope heat/power source that would be used to do the penetration by melting through the icy crust. The baseline design of the probe includes a suite of science instruments to analyze the ice during descent and the liquid ocean underneath. For communication, a set of fiber optic wire as well as wireless RF in the very cold porous top layer is assumed, and then acoustic modules would be used for the communication in warmer denser ice over distance of 25 km between the modules. In addition to the acoustic communication modules, a sonar is part of the concept, for obstacle avoidance. The focus of this paper is on the use of elastic waves in the 1kHz range.

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Citation Download Citation

Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Xiaoqi Bao, Hyeong Jae Lee, Benjamin Hockman, Mircea Badescu, Stewart Sherrit, and Shyh-Shiuh Lih "Acoustic communication in deep ice at ocean worlds", Proc. SPIE 11593, Health Monitoring of Structural and Biological Systems XV, 1159322 (22 March 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2582582

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