NASA SPARROW
Jason Wang, GITA 2

The NASA Steam Propelled Autonomous Retrieval Robot for Ocean Worlds, or SPARROW, was created to explore icy enviroments in space. For example, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus are very icy and covered in long spikes of ice. While normal robots would struggle to overcome these obstables, the SPARROW could simply "hop" over them. Powered by steam from melted ice instead of rocket fuel, these robots would also be very enviroment-friendly.



This is an artist's depiction of the NASA SPARROW.



The image below shows the process of the SPARROW both collecting samples and recharging. First, the SPARROW starts at the lander, where it receives ice as fuel. Then, it hops to a target point, where it collects samples and data. Third, it hops back to the lander, both delivering the sample to the lander and recharging.


The image below shows an example of a target area for the SPARROW.