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Active TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 3)
The low gravity environments of Enceladus and Europa pose unique challenges for robotic explorers. Climbing robots to descend the vents on Enceladus in pursuit of subsurface ocean access must anchor to the icy wall to resist the force of plume ejecta, which may far exceed the robot’s weight. Current anchoring mechanisms for robotic ice climbing require insertion forces that would be difficult or impossible to apply in the moon’s low gravity environment. This work aims to introduce a robotic anchoring mechanism to enable high-strength attachment with low initial preload force required for anchoring. The three-stage mechanism will first use a small thermal pick to form an attachment to the surface with low insertion force. Then, in a technique inspired by human ice climbers on Earth, the device will use dynamic impacts to form indentations on the icy surface. Finally, the device will use spined fingers to anchor to these new indentations, forming a strong attachment to the ice. I will design, build, and test each stage of this anchoring mechanism, then characterize the performance of a full three-stage gripper. In Aim 1, I will build on prior work to achieve low insertion force thermal anchoring. In Aim 2, I will design a spined gripper finger to demonstrate attachment to impact-formed indentations in ice. In Aim 3, I will design a mechanism to create these indentations through dynamic impacts. In Aim 4, I will design and characterize the anchoring performance of a fully integrated gripper. The success of this technology will enable currently impossible high-strength anchoring to icy surfaces in microgravity, unlocking new exploration capabilities for in-situ robotic explorers on the icy worlds of Enceladus and Europa.
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