Two miles beneath the Pacific, NASA runs a machine no bigger than a motorcycle through water dark enough to swallow it whole. Not to study the ocean floor, but to rehearse for a search that ends on a moon half a billion miles away, where the same crushing dark might be hiding the answer to whether we're alone.
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SOURCES & FURTHER READING
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Shank et al (WHOI HADEX / Orpheus program) — https://www.whoi.edu/what-we-do/explore/underwater-vehicles/auvs/orpheus/
NASA JPL, Orpheus terrain-relative navigation (2021) — https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/robotic-navigation-tech-will-explore-the-deep-ocean/
Sweetman et al, 2024 (dark oxygen, Nature Geoscience) — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01480-8
NASA NEEMO (Aquarius analog program) — https://www.nasa.gov/missions/analog-field-testing/neemo/about-neemo-nasa-extreme-environment-mission-operations/
NASA Europa Clipper (mission page) — https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper/
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CONTINUE THE DISCUSSION
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Which ocean moon finds life first? Europa or Enceladus? Vote in the community post before Europa Clipper flies past Earth.
#Europa #NASA #DeepSea
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