NASA experimented with laser weapons penetrating ice for robots

The US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) will test high-energy laser-breaking weapons in the American Alaska ice. The weapon will be installed on a life-discovery robot at NASA announcing plans to explore Jupiter's Moon, the moon is thought to have a lot of Jupiter's water.

NASA tests laser weapons of high-energy ice breaking

In 2016, NASA will spend $ 30 million on a project to find life at Europa . The agency will also build an ocean exploration robot shaped like squid to find life on Europa.

Figure simulating an adventurous robot equipped with ice-breaking laser weapons - (NASA screenshot)

However, Jupiter's thick ice on the moon is one of the biggest challenges, Louise Prockter, a planetary scientist at the Institute of Applied Physics at Johns Hopkins University (USA), said. .

After landing at Europa, the robot must create a tunnel through the ice 20 to 30 km thick. Even the thinnest place is a few kilometers thick.

To overcome this challenge, NASA decided to use high-energy lasers . Climate in Europa is very harsh, robots must operate at freezing temperatures. After landing, it will use high-energy laser weapons to melt the surface ice Europa, opening a tunnel down to the ocean below.

Europa Moon has a lot of Jupiter water - (NASA screenshot)

Previously, NASA used to sponsor a test of ice-breaking laser weapons. In 2014, they equipped laser weapons for Valkyrie robots and experimented on the Matanuska glacier in Alaska. However, Valkyrie at that time was only 31 meters deep.

The experiment at the time proved that the ability to use a laser to penetrate thick ice is possible. Due to limited funding, testing at that time used only 5 kW laser. If conditions permit, the laser can work well with a capacity of up to 250 kW.