Developing technological synergies between deep-sea and space research

<p>Recent advances in robotic design, autonomy and sensor integration create solutions for the exploration ofdeep-sea environments, transferable to the oceans of icy moons. Marine platforms do not yet have the missionautonomy capacity of their space counterparts (e.g., the state of the art Mars Perseverance rover mission),although different levels of autonomous navigation and mapping, as well as sampling, are an extant capability.In this setting their increasingly biomimicked designs may allow access to complex environmental scenarios,with novel, highly-integrated life-detecting, oceanographic and geochemical sensor packages. Here, we lay anoutlook for the upcoming advances in deep-sea robotics through synergies with space technologies withinthree major research areas: biomimetic structure and propulsion (including power storage and generation),artificial intelligence and cooperative networks, and life-detecting instrument design. New morphological andmaterial designs, with miniaturized and more diffuse sensor packages, will advance robotic sensing systems.Artificial intelligence algorithms controlling navigation and communications will allow the furtherdevelopment of the behavioral biomimicking by cooperating networks. Solutions will have to be testedwithin infrastructural networks of cabled observatories, neutrino telescopes, and off-shore industry siteswith agendas and modalities that are beyond the scope of our work, but could draw inspiration on theproposed examples for the operational combination of fixed and mobile platforms.</p>