Scientists believe that under the thick ice shells there are vast inland oceans that could potentially support life.
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NASA plans to explore the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn with autonomous robots. A large number of moons in our solar system are believed to have vast oceans under the ice, especially Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, and these oceans are tempting places to look for the possibility of life. Scientists believe that hydrothermal vents exist on Saturn's moon Enceladus and open a window into understanding the conditions that may have been conducive to primitive life.
Europa (the sixth most distant moon of Jupiter) is believed to hide vast oceans beneath its thick icy shells, and they are collectively called “ocean worlds.”
In October, NASA launched the Europa Clipper probe to learn more about conditions on Europa, and several research efforts are underway to directly investigate the interior oceans of Enceladus and Europa.
One of these projects, called SWIM (Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers), is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The program plans to send several palm-sized autonomous underwater robots into the inner oceans of the icy moons to search for signs of life.
It is noted that these autonomous underwater research robots are extremely small. Their wedge-shaped bodies are about 12 centimeters long. A device called a “cryobot” will transport the robots under the thick ice shells of these moons, using nuclear energy to melt the ice.
For reference
Europa's orbit is an ellipse, and the shape of the satellite is affected by Jupiter's gravity, deforming as it approaches Jupiter.
This change in shape creates friction inside Europa, generating enormous amounts of heat in a mechanism known as tidal heating, which melts some of the ice and forms a vast interior ocean beneath the moon's thick ice shell.
Europe's inland ocean is salty and is estimated to be about 100 kilometers deep on average, with a total volume of water twice that of all the Earth's oceans, despite the fact that this satellite is much smaller than our planet.
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