Posted on 02/16/2008 1:34:43 PM PST by BGHater
All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.
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ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE |
Yeah, but Roy Scheider died last week so it’s ok.
Very cool
Great minds think alike :-)
Great. He'll be going to Europa too, I'm guessing.
I guess we’ll find out if the crust on Europa is “thick” or “thin” and answer that debate, but I didn’t see any notation as to the method for breaking through the granite-like icy crust. Endurance has to reach the liquid below the surface before it will be of use. Has anyone kept up with NASA’s design for the equipment to accompany Endurance?
I would think the equipment to melt through Europa’s ice would be more complex, heavier and consume far more power than the probe itself.
Making a probe/submarine is child’s play compared to the rest.
Testing this in Wisconsin, they just HAD to make it look like it’s covered in cheese.
I see how it is....
Requiring an ice hole is a mistake. The probe should be equipped with a shell that will change the ionic structure of the ice to melt it.
Much like how salt melts ice, a coating of some material that melts the *type* of ice, not necessarily water ice, that the probe will land on.
For example, if it was ordinary water ice on Earth, and you had a shell around a ball which contained a half foot thick crust of crystallized hard salt, with gaps in the shell so that the ice would touch the salt. That much salt could melt through a LOT of ice, by changing its ionic structure, *not* by warming it.
Can’t imagine them pulling this off. The pressure’s got to be horrendous, even though gravity’s only one seventh or one eighth that of earth. I mean, the pressure under 12 miles of ice would be like being under 1.6 miles of ice on earth. Then the idea that you could go very deep into this 60 mile deep ocean on top of that... It just ain’t gonna happen; i.e., we definitely won’t be looking at any hydrothermal vents, imo.
But I’m rooting for them though! It’s absolute genius. Best case: It survives and roams the upper layers of Europa’s ocean(s) for years, suffering no breakdowns, reporting back periodically to earth, sending pics of it frolicking with mile-long ice whales, etc.
It’s going to have a hot nuclear mass of fuel ... (plutonium?) that allows it to melt through the ice and at the same time provide the sub with power.
</sarc> or link please? It runs on lithium batteries, I didn’t see any mention of your suggestion.
The model runs on lithium batteries. They are not going to put plutonium in a pristine Arctic or Antarctic lake. I’ll try to find a link but no guarantees; I saw it on the Science Channel.
Haven't seen this particular cryobot mentioned before and think it's probably just one of many designs they're looking at. Gonna keep looking...
LOL, absolutely series! It’s fascinating stuff, huh? I’m very excited about it.
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