Acoustic Communication In Ice Crust For Ocean Accessing Probes

Cold ocean worlds in the solar system (e.g., Europa, Enceladus, etc.) have been identified as high-priority targets of the NRC Planetary Science Decadal Survey. Research and development efforts are significantly increasing to develop ice descent probes that would access the oceans of these icy moons. The developments require a communication link from the probe to the surface through the ice crust and, then, to Earth. One of the proposed solutions currently in development is a wireless communication link through the ice that consists of a series of transceiver pucks. These transceivers typically use radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic communications; however, RF signals are highly attenuated in warm, salty, or wet ice. An enhancement is to use acoustic communication to be applied to the warm ice zone and briny ice regions where RF is highly attenuated. The communication capability (baud rate) of the acoustic transceiver pucks which is related to the available power and the puck spacing is being studied. Jupiter's moon Europa was chosen as the target body but the results are applicable to other planetary bodies. Our current understanding of the properties of the ice crust was used to guide the study.