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I'm gonna take a step back from "Space colonies" and "Advanced propulsion", and look at this near-term potential mission instead. As we all know, life on Europa is likely, due to it's underice liquid water ocean, also, NASA wants to put an orbiter/lander there as well, but did you also know that NASA backed a Space Eel too? Cool, huh? Quote on how it would work: “The electricity gets used to electrolyze water, splitting the H2O into H2 and O2, which get stored internally in the body and limbs of the robot. The gases can then be mixed and ignited on demand, which could propel the bot in one of two ways: the explosions could either cause the limbs and body of the bot to expand and contract, allowing it to ‘swim,’ or you could use the explosions much more directly, directing the exhaust out the back of the robot, causing it to jet forward like an octopus.” I hope that our first Space Eel on Europa doesn't get eaten by an even more epic Alien Space Whale. Man, that would suck and be awesome at the same time, but as long as we take pics of it, I won't really mind. Links: Robotic Space Eel: http://news.discovery.com/tech/robotics/robotic-space-eel-may-one-day-explore-europas-seas-150512.htm NASA's Europa orbiter/lander: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/van-kane/20160105-nasa-europa-lander.html Evidence of liquid water under Europa: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16nov_europa/ Here's an awesome video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZo7_bR7V4U I also recommend watching "Europa Report" when you get the chance, it's a space thriller, but it's quite accurate for a space thriller (No, it's not sucky like Apollo 18 was).
