Developing technological synergies between deep-sea and space research

19 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, supplemental files https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2021.00064

Recent advances in robotic design, autonomy and sensor integration create solutions for the exploration of deep-sea environments, transferable to the oceans of icy moons. Marine platforms do not yet have the mission autonomy capacity of their space counterparts (e.g., the state of the art Mars Perseverance rover mission), although different levels of autonomous navigation and mapping, as well as sampling, are an extant capability. In this setting their increasingly biomimicked designs may allow access to complex environmental scenarios, with novel, highly-integrated life-detecting, oceanographic and geochemical sensor packages. Here, we lay an outlook for the upcoming advances in deep-sea robotics through synergies with space technologies within three major research areas: biomimetic structure and propulsion (including power storage and generation), artificial intelligence and cooperative networks, and life-detecting instrument design. New morphological and material designs, with miniaturized and more diffuse sensor packages, will advance robotic sensing systems. Artificial intelligence algorithms controlling navigation and communications will allow the further development of the behavioral biomimicking by cooperating networks. Solutions will have to be tested within infrastructural networks of cabled observatories, neutrino telescopes, and off-shore industry sites with agendas and modalities that are beyond the scope of our work, but could draw inspiration on the proposed examples for the operational combination of fixed and mobile platforms

This work was developed within the framework of the Research Unit Tecnoterra (ICM-CSIC/UPC) and the following project activities: ARIM (Autonomous Robotic sea-floor Infrastructure for benthopelagic Monitoring; MarTERA ERA-Net Cofound). ARCHES (Autonomous Robotic Networks to Help Modern Societies; German Helmholtz Association). RESBIO (TEC2017-87861-R; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades). JERICO-S3: (Horizon 2020; Grant Agreement no. 871153). ENDURUNS (Research Grant Agreement H2020-MG-2018-2019-2020 n.824348). We also profited from funding from the Spanish Government through the “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S). A portion of this research was also carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration