These microbes go far beyond anything which our imagination could conceive of
back when we first started studying where we might find life.
Now, if we find anything on Europa, it's probably gonna look just like this,
(Kevin) Absolutely,
So I think if we're gonna try to get evidence for life on another planet,
we've certainly gotta look for evidence for life on our own first,
It's the only sample we've got, right?
(Jim) Pan Conrad. She was one of our senior astrobiologists.
She comes from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
and she's one of those valuable people who knows how to make science fun.
So you know when you were little, and you used to play like you were in a submarine?
That was this,
How cool is this? This is way better than the cardboard box,
(Jim) Tolya, just see if you can ease in on this structure,
(Tolya) Absolutely,
It's just like the Mushroom Planet, It looks exactly like a mushroom,
(Jim) Ah, that's gorgeous, It's like a mirror,
That's the hot water forming a surface,
(Pam) That is very cool,
See the bacteria growing right along the edge, right in the hot flow?
(Pam) I see it,
(Jim) It's all bacterial mats on top,
(Pam) Certain molecules found in living organisms
will glow when they're hit with an ultraviolet laser.
(Jim) Is that a good place for a fluorometer reading?
(Pam) I think this is a great place for a fluorometer reading,
(Pam) We designed our life detection tool in such a way
that we could point it at a rock and say:
"Aha! There's evidence of life over there. "
Lights out,
OK, I'm going to start the measurement now, Ready,,,
Go,
OK, Lasers firing,
We got a lot of signal here,
Whoo, this is good, We've got, like, 14,000 counts in ultraviolet,
(in German accent Very interesting, Doctor, But is it life?
There's definitely organic stuff there, (laughs)
(Pam) It's so important to study what you can
about extreme environments on the Earth
before you go out into the solar system and look for life.
(man speaks Russian on radio)
(woman) MIR Two, do you copy?
Go for it, Ares.
My name is Kelly Snook. I work at NASA. I'm a planetary scientist.
Copy that,
I study the process of exploration.
Rover Two and MIR Two,,,
What I do in my day-to-day work
is learn how to use the Earth as a training ground for going to another planet.
So here I was looking for the analogs.
(Jim) Baboom! You did it,
- It's in the basket, - (Jim) Slam dunk,
Slam dunk from the center line,
These, I thought these were bacterial, so I told Anatoly to pick some up,
(Kelly) Most people were on a ship, in the middle of the ocean,
studying the hydrothermal vents or making a film.
I was on Mars.
And the people that were down at the bottom of the ocean,
they were out on the surface of Mars.
Everything that we do in the ocean is ten times harder than you think it's going to be,
and you go in thinking it's gonna be really hard, you know?
- So I don't see Mars surface ops,,, - Same with space,
,,,being any different,
Yeah, hopefully we'll have time in that day to sort of debug our comm protocols
and the way we're interacting,,,
(Kelly) My team included astronaut Megan McArthur
from NASA Johnson Space Center,
and astrobiologist Tori Hoehler from NASA Ames Research Center.
We worked together to explore ways in which humans and technologies
can improve the science and discoveries we'll make on the Moon and Mars.
This combination of science and technology,
especially in an environment like under the ocean,
it's very similar to space exploration.
The submersible is like a pressurized rover on Mars,
and so we were using this as an opportunity to learn lessons about space.
Go ahead, Roberto,
(man on radio) If you can find any microbial mats right near the chimney...
Uh, I guess that depends on how we're able to configure the MIRs, and how,,,
(Kelly) I would talk to the remote scientists at NASA,
and I would get their requests for particular rocks,
and I would process the rocks and prepare to take them back to Earth.
I think it's probably loaded with bacteria,
I think the white stuff is most likely, like I say, sulfur oxidizers,
(Kelly) Analogs like this are key to understanding
how we'll do scientific exploration on the Moon and Mars.
Will we need manipulators, like we have on the MIR? Probably.
And how will we handle the problems and technical glitches
that no doubt we will have on an extended planetary mission?
Whatever you just switched off you better switch back on,
Right,
Rover One and MIR One,
be advised we have lost our starboard horizontal thruster,
Uh, we've lost AC and we have lost pan and tilt,
so we're probably gonna have to abort,
(Kelly) Every event here, both planned and unplanned,
generates data we can apply to the future.
Much of what I study is how humans interact with the technology
that allows them to accomplish their tasks.
Some of the technology is very simple,
but in space and at the bottom of the ocean, nothing is simple.
Yes!
Oh,,,
Is it gonna go? No!
Ay,,,
- (Jim) You can't rotate the scoop more? - (man) It's on the edge of this carousel,
(Jim) You can put it in,
- Can you rotate the scoop? - (man) I did, I did,
- It's in? - (man) One piece has gone inside,
Yeah? OK, good, All right, you got it, You got it, One is out, one is in,
(Kelly) The better we can integrate technology like this, and robotics,
into our human exploration systems,
the more effectively we'll be able to explore the solar system.
- I feel like I'm in a spacecraft, - I'm sorry?
- I said, I feel like I'm in a spacecraft, - You are,
- That's right, - You are in,,,
- Inner space, - ,,,the world's best spacecraft,
to explore this planet, You're in it,
(Kelly) The experience of human beings inside the submersible
is what we're most interested in.
It's Marge, It's Marge Simpson's hairdo,
(Kelly) It's not only the hardware in the process,
but the communications between the people and the robots,
because the scientist is the interface between the technology
and what we're trying to study.
(Jim on radio) OK, guys, what I'd like you to do is come to your right
when you've had a look at that, 'cause we're not getting much of an image here.
(Mike) And the current is of course not favorable,
That's OK, It wouldn't be fun if it was easy, right?
- (Loretta) What's that fish? - (Kevin) It's a big fish. Don't be scared.
(Jim) If you want to take a sample of any of these small sulfide rocks
down here at the bottom, that would be fine.
(Kelly) It's a very technologically difficult thing to do,
to pick up a rock at the bottom of the ocean
and put it into a sample collection device.
That's really at the core of what we're interested in.
How are humans going to do these small, easy tasks in a difficult environment?
Whoa, we got currents, Come on, gripper, Grip,
(Jim on radio) It's got it.
Oh! Hang onto it, baby,
All right, you got it, Barely got it, but you got it,
OK, try to get it over to the carousel,
(Kelly) Well, a task that would take a person in the field
a couple of minutes on Earth can take hours on Mars.
Every step is a new challenge.
(Jim) Now translate right just a little bit. About another two inches.
(Kelly) We can't send 150 people to Mars right away. We would send probably six.
These few people will be responsible
for all the science and exploration on the surface.
Kind of like proxies for the thousands of people back on Earth
interested in the mission.
Mars is the obvious first place to look for life in the solar system,
because there's evidence that the Earth and Mars
share a similar history of abundant water.
And one of the most important key elements of life as we know it is water.
Now, the Mars you see today is dry, dusty, cold, apparently dead.
But if you set the way-back machine, it didn't look like that.
If you could imagine if life was evolving on Mars,
and there was an impact great enough...
based on what we know now about extremophiles,
we think that life could survive a trip from Mars to Earth in a rock.
It's possible that life could be viable after that long of a trip.
We might all be Martians. We might all be from another solar system entirely.
All right, Put up your hand if you would sacrifice ten years of your life to go to Mars,
- (Pam) I'm going, - Sure,
How would you talk your husband into letting you go to Mars?
Say, "All right, honey, Now, it's only gonna be for five years, OK?"
"And I'm gonna write every day, we'll have email,"
Whoa, That's a loaded question there,
It's funny, 'cause when you asked me the question, "Would I go to Mars?"
I raised my hand without even thinking about the consequences or life at home,
My husband, my cat, my mom and dad,,,
My cat,
That'd be hard, I think he'd say, "Go for it," I really do,
'Cause I think all of us, we're all human and we all have that exploration bug,
and if somebody that we love has the opportunity to go out there
and represent humanity and explore, I think he'd push me and go for it,
(Loretta) When you've been on the "Keldysh" for almost a month,
it's very easy to pretend that you're on your way to Mars.
You're far away from everything you know,
in a small environment with the same crew,
who are there for the same professional interests that you are.
They're there to explore, they're there to do science.
The Russians are very resourceful.
They were showing us some of their sampling tools,
and they have a tool that can sample just about anything you'd want to sample.
Some of the things are really clever.
Or as simple as the Nikolai pot,
which is basically a pot we stole from the cook, Nikolai.
It's something that I just love getting to be a part of.
You know, we get to be in their culture, and look at how they do engineering
and how they do operations.
It's an incredible environment to be working in.
I love it because of the way it brings people together.
Victor,
Obed?
Your,,, Your lunch?
- Yeah, - Yes, that's right,
Yeah? Yay!
(Loretta) This expedition captured a lot of that spirit.
OK, all right,
The idea of doing something that was really difficult,
and how people can come together to make something like that happen.
Poyehaly.
The way they communicate with each other.
No, forward,
(speaks Russian)
(Victor Hasta la vista, baby,
Victor's been practicing,
Vitka, khorosho, khorosho.
(laughter
(Loretta) One of the things I enjoy about Russian culture
is the way that you integrate play and work.
Vosem-pyaty.
I mean, I've studied Russian in college,
because I always wanted to work with the Russian space program.
And the "Keldysh" is a great analog for, you know, a space launch complex.
And I understood what all the astronauts are always saying,
when they say that the technicians and the engineers on the pad
are the real heroes, making sure that you're gonna be safe.
This expedition captured a lot of that spirit.
(man) Engines start.
(Dijanna) While we were out at sea, two incredible explorers
were already on their way to Mars.
"Spirit" got there first, blazing into the thin Martian atmosphere at over 12,000mph.
"Opportunity" arrived a few weeks later.
Landing for both was a nerve-racking affair.
(man on radio) Current altitude approximately 25,000 feet.
Awaiting confirmation.
We're moving at a speed of 173 miles per hour. We are near our terminal velocity.
Cleaner separation of end has been detected.
No signal at the moment.
Deep-space network tracking stations at Canberra searching for primary signal.
(man on PA) We're on Mars, everybody.
(cheering)
(Dijanna) Equipped with high-resolution stereoscopic cameras,
and a Swiss army knife's worth of geological
and chemical science instruments,
the mission of the Mars Exploration Rovers was clear:
Find evidence of water in Mars' past,
when conditions may have been more favorable to life.
You can learn a lot from a rock, if you know how to ask.
And you know where to look.
Of the two rovers, "Opportunity" really hit the jackpot.
The ancient bedrock was absolutely loaded with hematite,
an iron-bearing mineral that usually forms from interaction with liquid water.
Then scientists detected jarosite,
a mineral that suggests the rocks may have been soaked in acid ground water,
or in a hot springs environment, like Yellowstone National Park.
Other clues included empty cavities inside rocks,
where salt crystals may have dissolved away,
and rippled sediment patterns,
hinting at the presence of free-flowing water over thousands of years.
And then there were the "blueberries." Tiny spheres of hematite,
eroded out of the rocks and spilled out all over the surface.
On Earth, spheres like this form in the presence of water over time.
Both "Spirit" and "Opportunity" helped confirm where the water was on Mars,
but they were not equipped to tell us where the water is now.
That job fell to the Mars Odyssey Orbiter,
which detected what is believed to be massive quantities of water ice,
just a few feet below the surface, with the highest concentrations at the poles.
In 2008, "Phoenix" will rise from the ashes of the Mars Polar Lander,
and, using many of that failed mission's spare parts,
will land near the Martian north pole.
And, for the first time ever,
a Martian probe will do more than scratch the surface.
"Phoenix" will dig deep into the permafrost
and sample Martian water for the very first time.
Everything we learn about Mars makes the story more exciting.
There's evidence of past water, there's evidence of past volcanism,
the chemistry checks out.
All the ingredients for life are there. That's why we keep searching.
Of course, that's not the only way we're searching for life in the universe.
- Look at this, he's computer coordinated, - I know,
It says, "SETI Institute" on your shirt and on your laptop,
- It's a little over the top, - That's impressive,
- You're putting the message out there, - Well, you know, they gave it to me,
(Kevin) One of the groups I'm affiliated with
is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute.
And what the SETI Institute does is try to detect intelligent signals
from distant civilizations around another star.
To do this, Frank Drake, one of the founders of the SETI Institute,
wrote down just a set of factors known as the Drake Equation.
And it includes factors such as the fraction of stars around which planets form,
the fraction of habitable planets on which life emerges,
and the fraction of life that then evolves to intelligence,
and eventually to becoming tool-using civilizations
that can communicate with other civilizations in the galaxy.
(alien "speaks"
The last factor is the lifetime of the intelligent communicating civilization.
At the same time that we develop the technology
to communicate with beings on a distant planet,
we also develop the technology to annihilate ourselves.
And if that's standard for intelligent civilizations in the galaxy,
we're not going to have much luck searching for life elsewhere.
(alien "speaks"
(Jim) Let's say that my kind of modified Drake's Equation
says that life was possible on any planet, any distance from a sun,
or not even anywhere near a sun, or any planetarylike body,
like a moon of Jupiter or whatever, that had ice around it, OK?
And had some kind of tidal pumping from some other gravity source near it,
so that it had a liquid core and it was generating heat,
and it was making heat like these hydrothermal vents that we're seeing,
If we said there were maybe ten or twenty or fifty times as many worlds like that,
isn't it logical to assume that when we get a call from one of your buddies out there,
when SETI Institute finally picks up a signal,
it's gonna be coming from somebody who had to bore up through ice
and set their transmitter out on the ice?
Statistically, isn't that indicated by what we're talking about here?
There's a flaw in that statement, and that is: Ice worlds are most common,
We have no idea about that right now,
We got one liquid water planet in our solar system,
and we've already identified three potential hydrospheres
- that are ice-covered and far from the sun, - Right, But,,,
Based on our own immediate experience, it's a three-to-one ratio,
Sure, sure, Do we know if any of them are habitable?
- We don't, but we gotta go look, - Right,
(Kevin) We may find that icy little worlds like Europa
are where the bulk of liquid water exists in our galaxy.
And, in fact, that's where the bulk of life may exist.
Who knows?
But it is really interesting to think about the evolution of intelligence
in an icy world system.
Would you evolve to intelligence?
Would you wonder about the bottom of that ice shell?
Our primary focus at this site will be for the mussels and the crabs,
OK, And you need mussels and crabs, and we're gonna do the crabs in a crab trap?
We're gonna do crab traps,
So we're hoping that whatever we fix in the crab trap will trap these guys,
Now, do you care where we put the crab trap?
Preferably where there's crabs,
(Dijanna on radio) Yes, we're currently at X coordinates minus 106,
Y coordinates minus 76. Over.
(Dijanna) The story of the vents is really the story of the microbes.
This is it, right here,
Bottom of the food chain, Waving fields of bacteria,
(Dijanna) The vent fluid is a kind of liquid sunshine,
powering the whole food chain down here.
Some of the animals are eating the bacteria,
some of them are preying on the ones that eat the bacteria.
(Jim) It's kind of ethereal, huh?
Who would have thought that bacteria could be beautiful?
(Dijanna) The animals are eating the bacteria,
but there's something else going on here too.
It's symbiosis, a dance of life between partners of different species.
Vent animals, like the shrimp and the mussels,
have formed symbiotic relationships with microbes
that can live off of the chemicals in the vent fluid.
(Dijanna) Oh, we're near something big, guys,
Large mussel beds, This is the jackpot,
(Dijanna) I study the metabolic and molecular physiology
of mussels and crabs that live at these deep sea vents.
I'm focusing on their ability to withstand variations,
large variations, in temperature.
The genus Bathymodiolus
is the scientific name for the mussels that we study.
(Dijanna) We've got a mussel mound over to the right, Genya,
I think this will be a perfect spot to do our mussel collections,
- Yes, - You see what I'm talking about?
I think these are mixed sizes, Or can you get some small ones?
- (Genya) We will take small and big also, - But I need small,
- Only small? - Only small,
- OK, - Malinky. Yeah? Is that small?
- Yes, - OK,
All right,
(Dijanna) Keldysh, Keldysh, MIR One,
We have collected a full batch of mussels in the clam bucket,
X minus 487, Y minus 64,
Oh, yeah! Bingo, baby,
Looks like you got your crabs,
(Dijanna on radio) Yes. We got crabs. Big time. It's, like, full.
You did it, you did it!
Bio box is closed, We have crabbage,
(Dijanna on radio) We have crabbage. (laughs)
- Wanna open that? - Yeah,
(Dijanna) My PhD advisor is Jim Childress.
He's been studying hydrothermal vent communities
since their discovery in the late 1970s.
And he has years of experience going to sea and doing science
in these extreme environments.
So the Childress lab is one of the only labs in the world
that's able to keep these animals and maintain them
in an environment similar to what they come from.
As fast as we can, we take the animals that were collected
and bring them into our lab,
where we place them in a maintenance respirometry system.
We call this thing "the condo."
We put the animals in these little condos,
we repressurize them up to the pressure that they were collected in,
and we make sure that we have them back at the temperature
that is optimal for their survival.
Then we pick some of the animals to use for our experiments,
and we transfer them into another system
that's called the high-pressure respirometry system.
Now, this system is extremely unique and special,
because here we can manipulate the environmental conditions,
and we look at the metabolic rates of the animals
as we vary their environmental condition, and that's what I love to study.
By looking at mussels, you can gain a better understanding
about temperature adaptation, and that might help us in the future
when it comes to the warming of our planet.
Global warming is real.
It's putting our planet at risk, life as we know it, not just species.
I mean the whole food chain, the whole ecosystem.
And at some point we're gonna have to deal with it.
(Dijanna) I think I got into the ocean because it's mysterious to me,
it's unknown.
It's not explored, it hasn't been conquered,
and I appreciate it, and I have respect for it.
(Kelly) Did you ever think you'd end up here?
(Dijanna) Oh, God, no.
But I guess this is the path of questions that I tried to answer,
which has led me on a path that ended up here,
And so now the question that I'm trying to answer
has me taking submarines down to the bottom of the ocean,
(Jim) OK, let's, uh,,, Let the meeting come to order,
The dive will be Snake Pit,
The pilots will be Dr, Anatoly Sagalevitch, MIR One, Genya Chernaiev, MIR Two,
We find a structure that we can work the 'bot,
So we'll land at the base and we'll just try to work up through the structure,
ideally up all the way to a chimney,
There is not supposed to be too much hot venting on the wall,
some shimmering water,
but I don't think the hot vents happen until way at the top, is that correct?
The best way to visualize this stuff is wherever you see something black,
that's like a blowtorch,
That's, you know, a blowtorch made out of water,
OK, there's MIR One,
(Dijanna) They're coming up with us, aren't they?
(Jim on radio) You're about halfway up the structure right now,
so if you just work your way forward along the wall.
(Dijanna) Copy that.
(Jim) There's an antler-shaped stone bowl that's filled with juvenile "Rimicaris."
Roger that,
All right, This is, I think, the structure he was describing,
and I think I can get in a little closer to it,
That's it, You should see 'em now, Over,
- (Mike) Got it, - (Dijanna) Oh, wow,
Copy that, We see it,
(Mike) These little shrimp are different, Are these related?
(Dijanna) Yes, Juvenile and adults,
(Dijanna) The vent shrimp, "Rimicaris exoculata,"
are grazing on the bacteria growing all around them.
- Are you seeing this crab? - I sure am,
Look at 'em, They're eating the bacteria that's growing all over that crab,
(Jim) Oh, he almost got that guy, Look at that,
He's all covered with this bacteria,
He doesn't know it, he just thinks the shrimp are picking on him,
It's like crab-fu here at the bottom of the ocean,
- (MIke) The shrimp colony, There you go, - (Dijanna) There it is,
- Let's check that guy out, - OK,
- This is black smoke, - (Mike) Look at these guys,
(Dijanna) I can't believe they're swimming in and out of it,
Oops, Aah! It's hot,
OK, if it's not cooking them, it's not gonna cook me,
So I'm gonna move in a little closer,
Being bold,
- Now let's get out, Back out, - (Mike) I've got full back command,
- What the heck? - (Dijanna) All right,
- (Mike) They're attached to us, - (Dijanna) Let's stay away from that,
- (Mike) They're on us, - (Dijanna) They're attacking us!
(Jim) Lookit, the shrimp love him, They're all over him,
The shrimp are loving Jake, Check that out,
Look at that, (laughs)
(Mike) Oh, wow, Oh, my goodness, I can't even see the fly,
I just see shrimp,
(Dijanna) Yeah, looks like we've got some piggybackers,
some shrimp that are along for the ride, Over,
Wow, That's amazing,
(Mike) I can get shrimp at Sizzler, This,,,
You can't get this shrimp at Sizzler,
(Dijanna) "Riftia," the giant tubeworms,
are hands down the stars of the deep vent community,
and also the best example of symbiosis in action.
I've got a little bit of shimmering water here,
We should be OK, Wow, Oh, this is gorgeous,
(Dijanna) These animals don't even have a stomach.
They literally can't eat.
They depend completely on a large sac of microbes inside their body,
which produces their food.
(Mike) When you get in really close, you can see some pretty neat stuff,
(Dijanna) Oh, wow,
You see that guy? Can we grab him?
If you want to, You get ready, I think we're set,
(Dijanna) On your mark,,,
- Oh, he might come to us, - (Mike) Go,
- Oh! - (both laugh)
(Jim) Crab got away, Tell 'em nice try,
Nice try, nice try,
(Dijanna) They're gorgeous underwater,
The long red plume is like a gill.
It takes in oxygen, and also nutrients from the vent fluid.
The worm's job is to keep this plume in the flow,
sucking in nutrients which feed the bacteria inside.
And it's the bacteria's job to convert the sulfide chemicals into food for the worm.
So the question is, do the bacteria work for the worm,
or does the worm work for the bacteria?
If these animals didn't exist, we could not have imagined them.
It makes me wonder what else is out there, waiting to be discovered.
You've got a cool job, Genya,
Thank you,
So the real question is, could you imagine a colony of these on Europa?
Where would the oxygen be coming from, you know?
If the whole idea is they don't need sunlight to drive this ecosystem,
it's just chemosynthesis, but they need some ambient oxygen,
- The oxygen in the water came from,,, - (Kevin) Photosynthesis,
(Jim) Photosynthesis a million years ago, maybe,
It doesn't matter, however long it takes for the water to turn it over,
(Kevin) So the question becomes, is oxygen necessary for life?
- (Jim) Ah, yeah, Yeah, - (Kevin) OK?
It may be for large animals, OK? But if we get down to the microbial level,,,
- But we want to see large animals, - You want to see large animals,
We want to see large animals, We don't want to spend all this money
to go out into space and find a microbe,
Oh, come on, microbes are great, You know, they're highly underrated,
But they're not good conversationalists, I mean, look, I would want to give,,,
Here, look, let me just go forward to one of these cool Riftia patches,,,
What do you think makes life here possible?
These guys have this incredible symbiosis with microbes,
Yeah, they're living on the bacteria,
But I'm not gonna give a bouquet of bacteria to my mom,
but I would give her a bouquet of these Riftia.
Look at these things, They're beautiful,
(Kevin) So what Jim says is right.
O xygen is the afterburner that fuelled the explosion of multicellular life on our world.
And even though chemosynthesis happens beyond the light of our sun,
many of the biological processes still require some free oxygen,
and this oxygen is typically supplied from photosynthesis at the surface of the Earth.
So where might oxygen come from on Europa?
Europa's orbit sits within Jupiter's enormous magnetic field.
The intense radiation continually slams energetic particles
into the Europan surface,
and has the potential to transform vast amounts of water ice
into things like hydrogen peroxide and molecular oxygen.
Assuming those oxidants make their way into the ocean on a regular basis,
through cracks and upwellings or comet impacts,
they would represent an energy jackpot for any life forms trying to survive there.
And so this is where some of the hydrothermal samples
come into play again.
We're trying to replicate the Europan surface environment in the lab.
(Kevin) Now, these, these are rocks from the deep ocean,
So let's prep this for the chamber,
- Maybe take a little piece off of here, - OK, sure,
So this is Europa in a can,
This part down here is a vacuum chamber,
We've got liquid nitrogen coming in, and we can grow ices
and basically replicate the surface environment of Europa,
Then, up here, we've got a high-energy electron gun,
and what this does is replicate the radiation environment of the Jovian magnetic field,
this tremendously large and powerful magnetic field of Jupiter,
What would happen to life exposed to that environment?
We're taking microbes that we found down at the hydrothermal vents,
putting them into this environment,
and bombarding them, blasting them, with this high-energy radiation,
making sort of a chemical junkyard, a biological chemical compound junkyard,
And this is sort of comparable to, say, going to a junkyard here on Earth,
and you wander around the junkyard and you see a steering wheel and a tire,
and you know that at one point there was a complete car,
When we send a spacecraft to Europa, we're going to have to understand
what are the chemical and molecular biosignatures that are left behind?
Are we seeing that same kind of signature on the surface of Europa?
If we do, what does that imply for the habitability of the ocean below?
(Dijanna) Menez Gwen's an underwater volcano.
It's this really unique place because you have your hydrothermal vents there,
and shimmering water everywhere.
- (Jim) Are we digging this place? - We're digging this place big time,
Big time,
(Jim) Really see the clear fluids,
So these are a little bit cooler, 'cause you're not getting the black smoke here,
(Jim) This site has an amazing dreamlike quality.
The cooler, clear vent fluid isn't as toxic as the black smokers.
So you wind up getting a lot of visitors.
Including some opportunistic predators.
(man speaks Russian on radio)
Oh, look at all that shimmering water coming out of that structure,
If we can collect a sample down there, that would be fantastic,
(Mike) MIR One, MIR One, MIR Two,
(Jim on radio) This is MIR One. Go ahead.
OK, Jim, we're ready now to launch Jake, Ready to go now,
Here we go, Coming out,
- Everything working OK? - Yeah, it seems OK,
(Kevin) So getting to work with Mike and Jake is just absolutely fantastic,
because you can think about this thing as the distant ancestor of a vehicle
that may someday explore oceans on other worlds.
OK, Mike, looking good, You should be able to take your core sample
right at the base of that chimney, Over,
- (Mike) Looks pretty hot though, Kevin, - (Kevin) It's just like a burning tree stump,
That is just incredible,
OK, it looks like most of the fluid is coming out here and here,
Can we go in right there?
I will do the best I can, but I'm working really hard,
We're in some kind of convective flow here,
We're in there now, You wanted close, we're close,
Be careful,
(Jim) Looks like he's hit a blowtorch, doesn't it?
Think he's getting hit,
Mike, back up, back up, You got the top of the 'bot is right in the vent fluid, Over,
(Mike) Can you see if I'm in the hot water?
You really want to know?
Nice, Mike, Just be the 'bot, Mike, Be the 'bot,
Stay calm, you got it,
(Mike) Yeah, I'm gonna just do this as quick as I can,
- (Kevin) Oh, yes! - (Mike) I think we got it, I think we got it,
Hey, we gotta just go cap this sample, We just poked it right into the chimney,
(Jim) Yeah, copy that, Congratulations, Go back and cap it,
(Kevin) Roger that,
Coming home,
- (Mike) Yeah, - (Kevin) Look at,,,
(Mike) Jake took some hits,
(Kevin) Other than the damage here and here, it looks in pretty good shape,
Yeah, that was pretty fun, Pretty intense,
(Loretta) Diving with Mike was great fun. He is a mastermind with the robot.
I didn't realize how much went into making that 'bot work right.
All right, it needs to come up, A little more, Pete,
(Mike) The 'bot had to be small so that it could fit on the MIR.
It had to have its own onboard power supply.
,,,back to neutral and we're ready to go,
Inside the sub, I have a laptop and a joystick,
and that's all I have inside the sub.
The fiber is unique.
It allows us to send a light pulse back and forth to the vehicle.
That's how we talk to the vehicle.
And we can control the little camera as well.
The 'bot creates a telepresence for us.
It actually allows us to feel like we're outside of the submarine.
- All right, I'm gonna get a little bit closer, - Oh, he's beautiful,
(Mike) I never saw anything like this, Look at that,
Uh-oh, he sees us now, Hey, hey, hey!
(Loretta) He's going after you!
(Mike) Look, look, look, he's grabbed the gripper,
He's putting his tentacles on the gripper, This is cool,
Who's grabbing who? That was incredible,
It deliberately reached straight out and probed the gripper,
I've never had an encounter like that with the ROV,
with an animal that came right up to us and touched the ROV like that,
(Mike) It was an extraordinary encounter.
It was as though I got to shake hands with an alien.
As an underwater explorer,
that was probably one of the highlights of my whole experience underwater.
It's not hard to imagine that someday it would be possible
to explore oceans on another world.
So getting an idea of what it's like to explore
these extreme environments on our own planet
could very well pave the way to exploring Europa.
A mission to explore under the ice of Europa
would be the ultimate robotic challenge.
During the landing, the team in mission control
would pretty much be along for the ride.
Europa is so far away, that even at the speed of light
it would take more than an hour for a command just to reach the vehicle.
It's really on its own.
It has to be smart enough to avoid terrain hazards,
and to find a good landing site on the ice.
Now we have to get through the ice.
You need a melt probe. It's basically a nuclear-heated torpedo.
The ice could be anywhere from three to sixteen miles deep.
Week after week, the melt probe will sink of its own weight through the ancient ice.
Until finally...
Now, what are you gonna do when you reach the surface of that ocean?
You need an AUV, an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.
It needs to be one smart puppy,
able to navigate and make decisions on its own in an alien ocean.
Europa has internal heat. It may well have hydrothermal venting.
If it does, and if the chemistry is right...
(Jim) It will have an enormous impact on humanity
if we find life in an ocean on another world.
But in order to find it, we have to go there.
And to go there, we have to continue the journey here.
Exploration is like a muscle. You have to exercise it to make it stronger.
And if water is the common ingredient for life,
we need to take what we know about deep ocean exploration
and apply it to space, giving scientists and explorers the experience they'll need
to follow the water, wherever it might be.
(Dijanna) Discovering life at the vents shows us that nature has more to teach us
than we can possibly imagine.
But I wonder, what would it be like
if we were exploring the ocean on another world?
- All stop, - Stopping,
Hold it steady here,
(Dijanna) It might completely change our definition of life.
Let's see what they do,
Right on,
Houston, "Endurance." We have arrived on station at the coordinates,
and we have some new friends.
(Dijanna) Who knows what's out there?
So we have to go.