P083-04
The Under-actuated Under-ice Oceanographic (U2O) mission concept

Wednesday, 16 December 2020: 05:42
Virtual
Richard Camilli1,2, Zachary Duguid3,4, Gregory Burgess3,5, Peter Ventola3,4, Eric Timmons4,6 and Aggelos Mallios1, (1)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (2)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, United States, (3)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cambridge, MA, United States, (4)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (5)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (6)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Cambridge, MA, United States
Abstract:
Exploration of ice covered marine environments is daunting. Regions below Antarctic ice shelves and the Arctic ice cap are among the least understood places on Earth, and under-ice exploration of other putative ocean worlds within our solar system remains in the realm of science fiction. Rapidly evolving technologies may, however, soon place under-ice exploration of these distant ocean worlds within reach. We present a mission concept for autonomous under-ice exploration using an under-actuated robotic vehicle that relies on intelligent sensing, energetically efficient control policies, and automated re-planning to conduct unattended survey operations for extended durations. Recent vehicle platform and payload system field trials indicate that this minimalist architecture is of sufficiently low power, size, mass, and communication requirement to enable basin-scale survey of Earth’s marine polar regions and approaches presumable accommodation constraints of a Europa or Enceladus under-ice mission.
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