First Step Towards Europa's Ocean?

Imagine sending a tiny submarine into the ocean under the ice of Europa, or into the methane lakes of Titan. Such probes could possibly make our first contact with alien life. Or, perhaps centuries from now, such a craft will conduct our first exploration of the ocean of an Earthlike world in another solar system.

A team of Swedish engineers are currently developing a tiny submersible-- perhaps 5 centimeters across and 20 long, in a cylindrical shape-- that will be designed to plumb not alien seas, but subhlacial lakes on Earth. Scientists think such lakes might contain life trapped in them for millions of years.

The team acknowledges, however, that their work could be extremely useful for designers of future deep space missions.