DEPTHX to Zacaton - Field Tests of a Europa Lander Third Stage Prototype

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3080 Submergence Instruments: Rov, Auv, Submersibles, 3094 Instruments And Techniques, 5462 Polar Regions, 6221 Europa

Scientific paper

The NASA Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) project led to the successful development of a fully autonomous underwater vehicle intended as a prototype of the Europa lander third stage that will search for microbial life beneath the ice cap of that Jovian moon. DEPTHX had two principal objectives: First, to develop and test in an appropriate environment the ability for an un-tethered robot to explore into unknown 3D territory, to make a map of what it sees, and to use that map to return home; and second, to demonstrate that science autonomy behaviors can identify likely zones for the existence of microbial life, to command an autonomous maneuvering platform to move to those locations, conduct localized searches, and to autonomously collect microbial life in an aqueous environment. The concept and prototypes were tested in the deep hydrothermal cenote of Zacatón, Mexico. In this presentation we summarize the final vehicle architecture and control systems approach to autonomous exploration in fully 3D environments in which apriori knowledge of the environment is non-extant and for which there exists no external navigation system. The results of the field work at Cenote Zacaton and the related feature known as Cenote La Pilita will be presented including the February 5, 2007 mission during which DEPTHX became the first fully autonomous cave exploring robot.

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