A robotic submarine named Endurance, is set to survey Antarctica's West Lake Bonney in October 2008. Test runs like these are designed to test proof of concept for a version of Endurance to explore the oceans thought to lie beneath the icy crust on Jupiter's moon Europa. Parts to be tested on the sub will be it's ability to operate up to 8 hours unattended which is a must because radio signals take too long to reach the moon for a controller to react in time. Earlier probs to the Jupiter system have reported some very interesting findings. Data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft has revealed hints of carbon – a building block of life – in the moon's purported seas. Both carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide, a potential signal of volcanism, are leaking from discrete areas on the moon's surface. It will be some time before the Endurance mission can take place though. Future preliminary mission need to take place, plus At present, Endurance is too massive to send on interplanetary travel. Scientists must also devise a means to drill through Europa's icy crust and lower the sub safely through the ice. And because radio waves travel poorly through water, a docking station anchored in or around the ice will need to relay data from the submersible to Earth.(Illustration: Michael Carroll/NASA/JPL
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