Ice Data Hub - A Crowdsourced Approach to Compile Terrestrial Analog and Ice Property Data for Icy Moons Exploration Activities

Ice is omnipresent in our Solar System: on Earth, on different planetary bodies, and on icy moons in the outer Solar System. Quite a number of those icy bodies feature subglacial water reservoirs under global ice shells, some of which may even host cryo-habitats. In addition, on the moons Europa and Enceladus the ocean is thought to be in contact with the rocky interior leading to water-rock processes potentially similar to the ones at the ocean floor on the Earth and making these two bodies highly relevant targets for planetary exploration. Space exploration missions, such as JUICE and Europa Clipper missions which are currently on their way to the Jupiter system, will allow us to further characterize cryo-environmental conditions on icy moons. Lander missions are likely to follow should a high habitability potential be identified. In order to prepare for both the interpretation of data acquired by Europa Clipper and JUICE, and for the design of future lander missions, it is of crucial importance to exploit any possible synergy between the various cryosphere research communities. 

In the past, terrestrial and extraterrestrial cryosphere research mostly developed as independent research fields whereas synergies may shed light on both fields. In fact, close cooperation across different cryosphere research communities is a necessary prerequisite for designing future planetary exploration missions. An in-depth knowledge of similarities and differences between ice regimes on Earth and hypothesized physical regimes on icy moons will pave the way for optimized information retrieval from mission data and allow to effectively orchestrate terrestrial analogue field test, lab experiments, and model-based design for lander technology development. An accessible database that provides information on available datasets, e.g., regarding activities at terrestrial analogue sites, dedicated lab experiments or ice properties is not available to date or maintained by the community.

The International Space Science Institute (ISSI) team ‘Bridging the gap: From terrestrial to icy moons cryospheres’ [1] started its work in 2023 and brings together scientists and engineers with different terrestrial and extra-terrestrial cryosphere expertise. The overall goal of the project is to make knowledge hidden in the vast amounts of existing data from different cryosphere research groups accessible to the community. This should be achieved by consolidating information from existing data sets into comprehensive, moderated open access compilations. More specifically, the team focusses on two types of data compilations, namely

• a collection of experimental and theoretical work regarding ice properties along with their implicit assumptions and ranges of applicability, and
• a compilation of published work conducted at terrestrial analogues sites along with their relevance for icy moons exploration.

Here, we will introduce the project and its rationale, and describe our approach to selecting and compiling the data. Most importantly, we will show how the community can contribute to and benefit from the data collection.

Acknowledgement:  This research was supported by the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, through ISSI International Team project #23-589 Bridging the gap: From terrestrial to icy moons cryospheres.

References: [1] https://teams.issibern.ch/icymoonscryospheres/