Thwaites Glacier represents 15% of the ice discharge from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and influences a wider catchment1–3. Because it is grounded below sea level4,5, Thwaites Glacier is thought to be susceptible to runaway retreat triggered at the grounding line (GL) at which the glacier reaches the ocean6,7. Recent ice-flow acceleration2,8 and retreat of the ice front8–10 and GL11,12 indicate that ice loss will continue. The relative impacts of mechanisms underlying recent retreat are however uncertain. Here we show sustained GL retreat from at least 2011 to 2020 and resolve mechanisms of ice-shelf melt at the submetre scale. Our conclusions are based on observations of the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) from an underwater vehicle, extending from the GL to 3 km oceanward and from the ice–ocean interface to the sea floor. These observations show a rough ice base above a sea floor sloping upward towards the GL and an ocean cavity in which the warmest water exceeds 2 °C above freezing. Data closest to the ice base show that enhanced melting occurs along sloped surfaces that initiate near the GL and evolve into steep-sided terraces. This pronounced melting along steep ice faces, including in crevasses, produces stratification that suppresses melt along flat interfaces. These data imply that slope-dependent melting sculpts the ice base and acts as an important response to ocean warming.

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Several worlds in our solar system are thought to hold oceans of liquid water beneath their frozen surfaces. These subsurface ice and ocean environments are promising targets in the search for life beyond Earth, but they also present significant new technical challenges to planetary exploration. With a focus on Jupiter’s moon Europa, here we (1) identify major benefits and challenges to subsurface ocean world science, (2) provide a multidisciplinary survey of relevant sample handling and life detection technologies, and (3) integrate those perspectives into the Subsurface Science and Search for Life in Ocean Worlds (SSSLOW) concept payload. We discuss scientific goals across three complementary categories: (1) search for life, (2) assess habitability, and (3) investigate geological processes. Major mission challenges considered include submerged operation in high-pressure environments, the need to sample fluids with a range of possible chemical conditions, and detection of biosignatures at low concentrations. The SSSLOW addresses these issues by tightly integrated instrumentation and sample handling systems to enable sequential, complementary measurements while prioritizing preservation of sample context. In this work, we leverage techniques and technologies across several fields to demonstrate a path toward future subsurface exploration and life detection in ice and ocean worlds.

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While liquid environments with high salt content are of broad interest to the Earth and Planetary Science communities, instruments face challenges in detecting organics in hypersaline samples due to the effects of salts. Therefore, technology to desalt samples before analysis by these instruments would be enabling for liquid sampling on missions to Mars or ocean worlds. Electrodialysis (ED) removes salt from aqueous solutions by applying an electric potential across a series of ionselective membranes, and is demonstrated to retain a significant percentage of dissolved organic molecules (DOM) in marine samples. However, current electrodialysis systems used for DOM recovery are too large for deployment on missions or for use in terrestrial fieldwork. Here we present the design and evaluation of the Minature Robotic Electrodialysis (MR ED) system, which is approximately 1/20th the size of heritage instruments and processes as little as 50 mL of sample at a time. We present tests of the instrument efficiency and DOM recovery using lab-created solutions as well as natural samples taken from an estuary of the Skidaway River (Savannah, GA) and from South Bay Saltworks (San Diego, CA). Our results show that the MR ED system removed 97-99% of the salts in most samples, with an average DOC recovery range from 53 to 77%, achieving similar capability to tabletop instruments. This work both demonstrates MR ED as a possible field instrument and increases the technology readiness level of miniaturized electrodialysis systems for future missions.

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