DepthX Goes Where No Bot Has Gone Before -
In March, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University tested DEPTHX, or Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer, in a series of Mexican sinkholes.
DEPTHX creates its own 3-D maps of previously unexplored spaces and takes biological and geological samples. With its complex sonar system and navigation software, the bot then finds its own way home. The vehicle measures 8 feet in diameter and weighs 2,860 pounds, and its squashed sphere shape eases its navigation.
In the next few years the team that built the robot wants to use it to explore beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. The longterm goal of the NASA-funded project is to use DEPTHX technologies to map and search for life on Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy satellites.
Here, DEPTHX dives with its sampling payload (coring device, camera and water inlet) extended.
In March, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University tested DEPTHX, or Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer, in a series of Mexican sinkholes.
DEPTHX creates its own 3-D maps of previously unexplored spaces and takes biological and geological samples. With its complex sonar system and navigation software, the bot then finds its own way home. The vehicle measures 8 feet in diameter and weighs 2,860 pounds, and its squashed sphere shape eases its navigation.
In the next few years the team that built the robot wants to use it to explore beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. The longterm goal of the NASA-funded project is to use DEPTHX technologies to map and search for life on Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy satellites.
Here, DEPTHX dives with its sampling payload (coring device, camera and water inlet) extended.
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