I’m studying some ideas for a future hard sci-fi adventure using Mongoose Traveller 2ed and Orbital 2100, with player characters landing in Europa (Jupiter’s moon) to study the chance of life in the ocean under the moon’s icy shell.
I’m thinking about giving them some kind of submarine vessels, like a bathyscaphe or armoured diving suits, and probably a mobile base. Have any of you thought about how to design a vehicle that can be at the same time a dropship and a terrestrial base/vehicle to travel over the surface of Europa and transport the bathyscaphe to a chosen site?
Yes, the sub will need to be very strong and prepared to deal with depths of 100 km Europa - Subsurface ocean.
That’s 10 times as much water overhead as in the Mariana’s Trench (since water doesn’t compress like air, this scales about linear), while having a ninth of the gravity. So water pressure at the bottom shouldn’t be that much higher. And it’s already doable to get down to such pressures with current technology.
Though having something the size of a medium ship instead of a car would probably require some sci-fi tech. But nothing too fantastic.