Sometimes, headlines just write themselves. And in this particular case, there’s so much cool stuff going on with this NASA-funded robotic project that we couldn’t even stuff it all in to a single line. It’s a concept for a soft robotic eel designed to explore the oceans of Europa (a moon of Jupiter), which is able to scavenge electrical energy from magnetic fields, use it to generate oxygen and hydrogen, and then light it off to create an explosion to propel itself. Oh, and it’ll have a soft flexible skin that doubles as “a stretchable, electroluminescent display,” because it’s awesome. And why not.
This concept for a “soft-robotic rover with electrodynamic power scavenging” comes from Cornell University, and NASA has awarded it a grant under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to hoist itself up from TRL 1 to TRL 2. TRLs are “tech readiness levels;” TRL 1 is “basic principles observed and reported” while TRL 2 is “technology concept and/or application formulated.” An actual mission to Europa would involve a system that’s waaay up at TRL 9, so we’ve got a ways to go, but the sheer distance from any sort of practical technological readiness sure does let this robotic eel get away with all kinds of craziness.
via IEEE Spectrum
Image: NASA/Cornell University/NSF
