Geographically and logistically, Antarctica is about as far away from anywhere as you can get on this planet. Yet in the scope of our solar system, Earth鈥檚 southernmost continent is right in our own backyard.
is in Antarctica through February 2022 with a small team of researchers to explore the confluence of glaciers, floating ice shelves and ocean using a submarine robot called Icefin 鈥 the first mission of its kind. But the whole time, she鈥檒l also be thinking about worlds beyond Earth.
鈥淢y team and I focus on how ice and oceans work across the solar system, including Earth. Particularly, we focus on Europa, the innermost icy moon of Jupiter,鈥 Schmidt says.
Europa is the best place beyond Earth to look for life in the solar system, Schmidt says. To prepare for immanent missions to Europa and other ocean worlds, she鈥檚 leading teams studying polar ice and climate here on Earth.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to explore underwater, under ice, the hardest environment you can imagine 鈥 the most like Europa,鈥 Schmidt said. 鈥淚f we want to explore Europa with an underwater probe someday, we鈥檝e got to do it here first.鈥
The members of her , which is transitioning with Schmidt from Georgia Tech to Cornell, are working to better understand how oceans work both on Earth and beyond, and to develop tools for further exploration.
This mission assembles a diverse team of geologists, biologists, physicists, astronomers and chemists on the science side, and engineers from aerospace, mechanical and electrical disciplines, as well as computer science. Scientists and engineers on her team work 鈥渋n the same loop, in the same room,鈥 Schmidt says. 鈥淭he interdisciplinarity that Cornell seems to embrace and enable is exciting.鈥
Schmidt鈥檚 arrival at Cornell in July strengthened those cross-disciplinary ties between colleges, specifically in the area of robotics and autonomy, a high-priority research theme across the university. With joint appointments as an associate professor in the Department of Astronomy in the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频 and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric 麻豆视频 in the College of Engineering, Schmidt will be a key asset in expanding Cornell鈥檚 robotics program into the area of planetary exploration.
For example, Schmidt is on the ice-penetrating radar team of NASA鈥檚 Europa Clipper mission, which will launch in the mid-2020s to explore the outer solar system. Department of Astronomy (A&S) faculty members and are also involved in this mission, as is Principal Research Scientist . Altogether Cornell scientists are on five of Clipper鈥檚 10 instruments and will play a major role in mission planning and analysis of data.
For now, Schmidt and four colleagues from her team are working with colleagues from across New Zealand to deepen understanding of ocean worlds and to develop and test new tools. , will allow the team to access areas beneath the Ross Ice Shelf from previously unexplored angles.
Icefin 鈥 shaped like a torpedo, 13 feet long and 10 inches wide 鈥 carries cameras, sonar equipment, speed sensors, water column measuring tools and other devices. The team slips it into open water through a hole drilled in thick ice on the surface.
鈥淲e developed this tool to get into environments that have never been observed directly,鈥 Schmidt says. 鈥淚t allows us to make transects under the ice, and measure the ocean directly where it鈥檚 interacting with the ice.鈥
In the Schmidt and collaborators are using Icefin to learn the limits of life on Earth and to gain an understanding of the evolution of Jupiter鈥檚 icy moon Europa. Field work for this project is being conducted in McMurdo Station in Antarctica and in the nearby seas, and receives funding from NASA and support from Antarctica New Zealand and the National Science Foundation (NSF). In late 2019, Icefin explored under the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) near its grounding line 鈥 the place where glacier, land and ocean all meet, the most dynamic part of a glacier system.
In austral summer 2019-20, the Antarctic team traveled even farther away from the U.S. base at McMurdo for a similar project: to explore the Thwaites Glacier grounding line using Icefin, for the , funded by NSF and the National Environment Research Council.
The team is now deploying a brand-new sensor onboard Icefin under the sea ice near New Zealand鈥檚 Scott Base, along with a University of Otago team. This new sensor will make it possible to understand ice shelf melting and sea ice physics in new ways.
From there, the team will fly with Icefin to a new location with New Zealand鈥檚 Antarctic Science Platform program. There, the robot will explore a subglacial channel that connects lakes and streams underneath the Antarctic Ice sheet with the open ocean underneath the RIS.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to drop the robot straight into the channel where there鈥檚 water rushing out from beneath the ice sheet. That鈥檚 never been done before,鈥 Schmidt said. 鈥淚t allows us to see what鈥檚 happening with the entire hydrology of Antarctica, in situ. It鈥檚 exciting, looking at the interactions between the water beneath the ice and the ocean.鈥
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