Antarctica breakthrough: NASA sending robot below ice as ’life beyond Earth’ hopes surge

Lead engineer, Andy Klesh, explained in more detail exactly what he hopes the robot will do. 

He said in a statement: “We’ve found that life often lives at interfaces, both the sea bottom and the ice-water interface at the top.  

“Most submersibles have a challenging time investigating this area, as ocean currents might cause them to crash, or they would waste too much power maintaining position. 

“BRUIE, however, uses buoyancy to remain anchored against the ice and is impervious to most currents.  

“In addition, it can safely power down, turning on only when it needs to take a measurement, so that it can spend months observing the under-ice environment.” 

READ MORE: Antarctica’s ‘great secret’ exposed as cameras catch ‘strange creatures’ below ice