Then we can talk about NASA.
Posted on 12/17/2018 9:12:10 AM PST by BenLurkin
The nuclear ‘tunnelbot’ would deploy from a lander with a fiber-optic string of data ‘repeaters’ unfurling as it sinks.
Any such a Europa ‘tunnelbot’ would be relatively large. And risky to launch.
“We didn’t worry about how our tunnelbot would make it to Europa or get deployed into the ice,” says University of Illinois at Chicago associate professor Andrew Dombard. “We just assumed it could get there and we focused on how it would work during descent to the ocean.”
Which is the purpose of their mission. Whether or not such a nuclear-powered ‘tunnelbot’ is built and deployed is the next step. But the decision will be based upon an informed study of what it would take to take a peek under Europa’s ice.
Sending a probe to Europa is one of NASA’s major ambitions for the coming decades. But getting the mission past an increasingly skeptical US Congress may not be easy.
The project’s chief advocate was Texas Republican John Culberson, who chaired the subcommittee that funds NASA. The NASA study which produced the nuclear-powered ‘tunnelbot’ is a result of his efforts.
But he lost his seat at the recent midterm elections. And President Donald Trump’s most recent budget states he has no intention of funding an Europa lander.
Some experts express the fear such an attempt would be a ‘bridge too far’: we simply don’t know enough about the icy moon, yet.
“It’s a mission that came out of Congress as opposed to a mission that came out of the science,” says The Planetary Society’s Emily Lakdawalla.
Others argue the long lead-up time for such ambitious missions means now is the time to start working towards the project.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
*ping*
Sounds like a good reason to pull the plug on NASA.
We’ve been warned not to go there.
A “nuclear tunnelbot” — sounds like the end of the world is nigh.
There are many reasons to pull the plug.
Sounds like not a bad thing that the Congress critter that prompsed the idea and helped get the NASA study funded (what was going to be his “skin in the game) lost his seat.
There are tons of stuff that NASA, DOD and others do only because (a) some Congress critter wants them done and arranges the funds for it in their budget and/or (b) it buys votes in Congress for NASA and DOD getting approval for things they alone really want to do.
Nuke a hole in the ice, catch some of the escaping steam with an orbiter, send it home for a look-see.
No need to spend taxpayer dollars on new stuff, we already have tech to watch aliens in action, known by the acronym C-SPAN.
What could possibly go wrong?
Headlines 20 years later “Tunnelbot sends back message he’s been abducted and anally probed by aliens and asks Now What?”
Tell him to start identifying as LGBT. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Quite the contrary. This is an example of NASA getting back to its mission of exploration. This has nothing to do with muzzies or glowbull warming.
The surface of Europa shows the ice has broken frequently with resulting flows from the ocean below ending up frozen on the surface. It would make more sense to send a Rover with a drill to check those out first.
I know there are more wasteful projects out there. But should a debtor nation borrow money in order to send a ‘tunnelbot’ to Europa? I think not.
I thought we were warned not to attempt any landings on Eupropa.
Then we can talk about NASA.
And who could possibly object?
And this boys and girls is why we are twenty trillion in the hole.
“Gosh, look how much those other agencies spend, while our program is a bargain...”
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