Watch Nasa’s swimming ‘robo-fish’ built to hunt for alien life in hidden ocean on Jupiter’s moon in daring mission

A "SWARM" of tiny robot food could hunt for alien beingness successful hidden oceans connected the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

Nasa has revealed future-gazing footage of its prototype SWIM bots – built to brave otherworldly seas wherever humans person ne'er been.

SWIM, which stands for Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers, is simply a task designed to look for extraterrestrial life.

Scientists person agelong believed that signs of past oregon contiguous beingness could beryllium recovered connected Jupiter's Europa and Saturn's Enceladus.

Sending humans for a dip successful these alien oceans is simply a distant dream, but Nasa's tiny robots could safely research underwater.

The prototypes measurement astir 16.5 inches and measurement 5 pounds.

But Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the last mentation volition beryllium astir 3 times smaller – astir the size of a smartphone.

"People mightiness ask, wherefore is NASA processing an underwater robot for space exploration?," said Nasa's Ethan Schaler.

"It’s due to the fact that determination are places we privation to spell successful the star strategy to look for life, and we deliberation beingness needs water.

"So we request robots that tin research those environments — autonomously, hundreds of millions of miles from home."

Nasa's trial saw the prototype SWIM robots paddling astir the 75-foot contention swimming pool astatine the California Institute of Technology successful Pasadena.

The robots diagnostic 2 propellers – positive 4 flaps for steering – to navigate underwater.

Importantly, the robots are designed to run connected their own, which is important fixed however acold distant from Earth they'd beryllium portion connected a mission.

"It’s awesome to physique a robot from scratch and spot it successfully run successful a applicable environment," Schaler said.

"Underwater robots successful wide are precise hard, and this is conscionable the archetypal successful a bid of designs we’d person to enactment done to hole for a travel to an water world.

"But it’s impervious that we tin physique these robots with the indispensable capabilities and statesman to recognize what challenges they would look connected a subsurface mission."

Nasa says that the robots would usage an "underwater acoustic connection system".

This would let the bots to enactment retired their positions and transmit data.

Nasa has besides tested integer versions of the robots wrong a machine simulation.

This allowed the abstraction bureau to replicate the harsh conditions of Europa.

In the simulation, Nasa unleashed a "virtual swarm" of 5-inch versions of the robots.

Nasa says that these swarms could dwell of thing similar a twelve robots, sent "in 4 to 5 waves".

And they'd beryllium capable to research an country arsenic ample arsenic 3 cardinal cubic feet of water, with an approximate artillery beingness of 2 hours.

The atrocious news is that the SWIM bots person already missed a cardinal mission.

Nasa's Europa Clipper trade launched connected October 14, and volition probe Jupiter's satellite Europa.

The trade is owed to scope Europa successful 2030, and volition marque 49 flybys of the moon.

Nasa says it hopes that the trade volition beryllium capable to spot signs that the water hidden beneath Europa's icy crust could prolong alien life.

The SWIM robots could past articulation a future ngo to 1 of our star system's alien moons – perchance uncovering hard grounds of extraterrestrial life.