DEPTHX

The deep phreatic thermal explorer, DEPTHX abbreviated, is an unmanned autonomous underwater vehicle, which was used for the study of underwater cave systems, called cenotes, in 2007 Zacaton, Mexico.

The Diving Robot

The approximately 1.35 -ton underwater robot has a diameter of 2.13 meters and 1.52 meters high. It was built in 2006 in a cooperation program of NASA, Stone Aerospace and American and Mexican universities such as the University of Texas at Austin and Carnegie Mellon University and for field tests from January to May, 2007 in Central Mexico in water depths up to well over 200 meters for surveying and exploration dives used. On the technology support a wide variety of sensor packages and 3D navigation and cartography proximity technologies were tested. Further techniques have been explored with DEPTHX that for future landing missions in space, such as could be on Jupiter 's moon Europa and for the development of Hydrobots and Kryobots for astrobiological experiments of importance.

ENDURANCE

A further development, based on DepthX, the diving robot ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non- Disturbing Under -ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer). Funding was provided by a NASA research program, the Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets ( ASTEP ). In a collaboration between NASA Ames, Stone Aerospace, University of Illinois at Chicago, Montana State University, the AUV was used as part of the United States Antarctic Program in Antarctica. 2008 and 2009, the unmanned submersible device collected samples, and created a bathymetric map of the Bonneysees. Participating scientists were, inter alia, Peter T. Doran and Christopher McKay.