2 min read<\/p>\n
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/pia14160orig.jpg?w=1704\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nNASA\u2019s Aquarius instrument aboard the joint U.S. and Argentinian Sat\u00e9lite de Aplicaciones Cient\u00edficas mapped the surface salinity of Earth\u2019s oceans between 2011 and 2014. To calibrate the instrument, a team from NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including project scientist Yi Chao, had to distribute robotic floats across oceans. The experience helped inspire Chao\u2019s invention of an inexhaustible power source for ocean floats and sensors.<\/div>\nCredit: NASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNo one has mapped more territory than NASA. The agency not only charts stars and other planets but also maps Earth from orbit. Now a NASA invention could let robots map our planet\u2019s entire seafloor, helping to unlock resources while protecting habitats. The sonar devices for such an operation are not new, but they\u2019re hampered by battery limitations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As an engineer at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Yi Chao learned about those limitations firsthand. He worked on studying the ocean from space and was the project scientist for the Aquarius satellite mission measuring ocean salinity. The satellite\u2019s instruments were calibrated with sensors that had to be distributed across the oceans. He found that a major constraint to monitoring oceans is the battery life of subsurface sensors, which can\u2019t rely on solar energy. When their batteries die, they\u2019re either left dead in the water or recharged by ship at great expense.<\/p>\n
![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/pia14160orig.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>No one has mapped more territory than NASA. The agency not only charts stars and other planets but also maps Earth from orbit. Now a NASA invention could let robots map our planet\u2019s entire seafloor, helping to unlock resources while protecting habitats. The sonar devices for such an operation are not new, but they\u2019re hampered by battery limitations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As an engineer at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Yi Chao learned about those limitations firsthand. He worked on studying the ocean from space and was the project scientist for the Aquarius satellite mission measuring ocean salinity. The satellite\u2019s instruments were calibrated with sensors that had to be distributed across the oceans. He found that a major constraint to monitoring oceans is the battery life of subsurface sensors, which can\u2019t rely on solar energy. When their batteries die, they\u2019re either left dead in the water or recharged by ship at great expense.<\/p>\n