Posted on 06/15/2015 11:20:43 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Europa is back on the menu for exploration. NASA's budget for the 2016 fiscal year includes about $30 million for further development of the Europa Clipper concept, a mission to Europa that will seek possible signs of the icy moon's habitability. However, being potentially habitable is not the same as being inhabited. To find life, a mission will ultimately have to land on the surface and go under the ice to the ocean below. Europa Clipper, if and when it launches sometime around 2025, will carry out reconnaissance of the surface for safe and scientifically interesting places to land. Crucially, however, the Clipper will not be carrying a lander with it.
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The challenge of getting underneath the ice on Europa is a daunting one, according to Prockter. First, any cryobot would have to tunnel down through 20 to 30 kilometers (12.4 to 18.6 miles) of ice. Even the thinner areas might still be several kilometers thick.
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Bill Stone reckons otherwise. An experienced explorer, caver and engineer, as well as the founder of Stone Aerospace — a company that designs robots and vehicles to explore frontiers here on Earth, increasingly with an eye towards space – Stone heads back out to the Matanuska glacier this summer with his team of explorers and scientists to continue testing the most advanced cryobot in the world. Named VALKYRIE (Very deep Autonomous Laser-powered Kilowatt-class Yo-yoing Robotic Ice Explorer) and funded by NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program, this cryobot uses lasers and fiber optics to cleanly melt its way through the ice.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS—EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE
When dive in there and wipe out the eco-system inadvertently — the monoliths will come and take their revenge.
Why does this Headline make me think of hellary?
Please tell me it’s not because you want to see her two icy moons...
We have never seen the other side of the moon.
God be thanked!
Cryobot? I thought this thread was about John Boehner.
Excellent.
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