The University of Western Australia and NASA have wrapped up testing of its autonomous underwater robot at Australia’s Casey research station in Antarctica, after being previously fielded in the Arctic and Alaska. Known as BRUIE (Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration), the robot is destined to explore other planetary bodies of water within the solar system, including Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus moons. The robot has been in the testing phase since 2012 and is tasked to look for biosignatures beneath the ice of other worlds, as well as gather topography data about the ice while submerged.
