Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctiC Explorer (ENDURANCE)

Details Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctiC Explorer (ENDURANCE) Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctiC Explorer (ENDURANCE)

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufm.p52a..05d&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P52A-05

Biology

5200 Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology, 6221 Europa

Scientific paper

Permanently ice-covered liquid water environments are among the leading candidate sites for finding evidence of extant life elsewhere in our solar system (e.g. on Europa and other Galiean satellites, and possibly in subglacial lakes on Mars). In order to have the proper tools and strategies for exploring the extant ice-covered planetary environments, we are developing an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of generating for the first time 3-D biogeochemical datasets in the extreme environment of perennially ice-covered Antarctic dry valley lakes. The ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctic Explorer) will map the under-ice lake dimensions of West Lake Bonney in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and be equipped to measure a comprehensive suite of physical and biogeochemical indices in the water column, as well as Raman Spectrometry of the water column and benthos. The AUV is being specifically designed to minimize impact on the environment it is working in. This is primarily to meet strict Antarctic environmental protocols, but will also be useful for planetary protection and improved science in the future. We will carry out two Antarctic field seasons (in concert with our NSF-funded Long Term Ecological Research) and test two central hypotheses: H1: The low kinetic energy of the system (diffusion dominates the spatial transport of constituents) produces an ecosystem and ecosystem limits that vary significantly in three dimensions. H2: The whole-lake physical and biogeochemical structure remains static from year to year The talk will provide an overview of the ENDURANCE project and an update on the AUV development at the time of presentation.

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