NASA is Building an Autonomous Robot Fleet to Explore Beneath the Uncharted Arctic Ice Caps | UAP

Frozen and barren, the Arctic landscape may seem uninteresting, but for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientists, this environment offers a unique chance to study the effects of global warming. To do this, the team is developing a series of autonomous robots that are 8 feet long and equipped with specialized sensors to measure how warm ocean water interacts with ice. The project, called IceNode, could explore the unknown and dangerous freezing waters of the Arctic ice sheets.

The High Arctic: A Treacherous Area

The North Pole and nearby areas have been an area of interest for many decades, from developing a route to the Soviet Union during World War II to patrolling the area with submarines to establish clear territories.

Before the 1930s, traversing this treacherous terrain was tricky, as submarines weren’t advanced enough yet to navigate the polar ice caps. Explorers like Ernest Shackleton, who made a name for himself exploring Antarctica, were one of many who met a common fate when exploring both the north and south poles: ships couldn’t detect ice floes in the water until it was too late, and they crashed.

It wasn’t until 1958 that the U.S. submarine, the Nautlius, made the first-ever to the North Pole. The nuclear sub started in Point Barrow, Alaska, and then traveled nearly 1,000 miles to reach the top of the North Pole before…