Life Under The Ice

The Planetary Habitability and Technology Lab at Cornell University continues the search for life beyond our Pale Blue Dot. The universe is teeming with worlds we want to understand and one day explore. Here at Cornell University, our growing program aims to understand how icy ocean worlds form, evolve, and ultimately could give rise to life.

PROJECTS

From ice-diving robots to planetary habitability, learn about our current projects and follow our progress

PEOPLE

Meet the engineers, graduate students, field team, postdocs, and undergraduates on our team

ABOUT

We are building a program to understand how icy ocean worlds form, evolve, and may give rise to life

Featured PROJECTS

THWAITES & MELT

MELT is a collaboration between five universities and the British Antarctic Survey that aims to use autonomous sensors, vehicles (including Icefin), radar, and moorings to monitor the Thwaites ice shelf and grounding line.

RISE UP

RISE UP is working to explore Antarctica and develop technology to explore other icy ocean worlds in our solar system. The Ross Ice Shelf and Europa Underwater Probe project explores from the McMurdo sea ice to Kamb Ice Stream.

PINGO STARR

Pingo STARR will advance human and lander scale geophysical techniques specifically tailored to detect, characterize, and investigate the cryohydrology and genesis of possible pingo-like features on Earth, Mars, and Ceres.