Although these robots do not have propulsion, they can easily drift with water currents, assisted by specialized software.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced a new range of underwater robots to measure how rapidly ice is melting in Antarctica due to climate change. According to NASA scientists, robots will also help understand the impact of rising sea levels.
A US Navy laboratory camp has been set up in Artic to test the prototype of the submersible vehicles by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The vehicles were monitored in North Alaska’s frozen Beaufort Sea. When asked about the uniqueness of the new robots, Paul Glick, the JPL Robotics engineer and principal investigator for the IceNode project, said that robots are one of those imperative inventions that helps scientists understand the complexities of the planet’s most challenging locations.
The IceNodes are cylindrical, measuring about 8 feet (2.4 meters) in length and 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter. They can be deployed from vessels at sea or boreholes in the ice. Even though these robots have no propulsion, they can easily drift with water currents, assisted by specialized software. They can potentially reach areas where ice meets ocean and land. The uniqueness is that these challenging areas are not accessible via satellite, and therefore, the data collated by IceNode is critical.
According to the scientists, the primary purpose of deploying the new robots is to gather more accurate information, which will help engineers make the computers more efficient in analyzing the upcoming sea level rise. The aim is to accumulate data directly from the melting point. A detailed investigation in 2022 revealed that Antarctica’s ice has been severely melted by 12 trillion tonnes since 1977, more than predicted.
If the ice melts, the international sea level will increase by around 60 meters. Researchers worldwide are focusing majorly on Antarctica’s ice sheet. A study by JPL revealed that the ice slabs play an imperative role in keeping the glaciers behind; otherwise, they will slide into the ocean.
