Bruce,
Pardon my ignorance. Beyond shock resistance, these penetrator probes seem to obey KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) which is always a good thing, at least in oceanography. Can you please inform us about the Earth analogs that have been working? Also, any information on the Japanese Lunar-A and Russian Mars penetrator probes would be most welcomed. I believe the US military uses depleted U metal for armor-piercing bullets, tank armor, etc., so one could use a super-heavy metal like Pu for the dual purpose of energy generation and penetration power. However, some of the problems with melt-through mechanisms include (a) keeping it on path and (b) deflection/stoppage at any non-ice boundary (salt, sediments). Maybe worth a try, though. Gary >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Gary McMurtry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 1:20 PM >Subject: Re: How to combine the Europa Orbiter and Lander > > > > > > Bruce, et al., > > > > My sincere belief is if we can get the "powers that be" in NASA and > > JPL to place a viable lander on the Europa orbiter mission, the > > "combo mission", then we can all rest assured that we have made a > > significant contribution to the expedition of science. > > > > Toward that goal, I'm getting involved with some planetary scientists > > in proofing the concept of a projectile-like probe that can use > > gravity to burrow into the planet's "soil" or ice/salt crust. Yep, > > you guessed it, I'm doing the mass spectrometer development. Now, as > > a marine geologist (dusting off an old hat), we have this device > > called a free-fall corer. It is a perfect sampling tool when you are > > not too sure of the exact target or terrain. One launches several > > off the fantail of a ship into the areas of interest, and you can rig > > them for various sediment depths. Also, since you have many, a few > > loses are not mission-killers. I'll tell you more details of this > > planetary sampler project when I'm authorized to do so. > > >I think what you're talking about is, simply, penetrators -- which have been >routinely discussed as a way of exploring Europa (and most other worlds) for >decades. The only two attempts to use them for that purpose so far -- the >U.S. micro-penetrators on Deep Space 2 and the larger Russian ones on Mars >96 -- both failed, but Japan will make the next attempt in 2003 with large >ones on Lunar-A, and at some point the technology is bound to work (since >it's worked routinely on Earth for decades). > >A multiple Europa penetrator mission has its definite positive points, and >in fact the Europa Icepick website (including me) has very often discussed >them in the past -- namely, the facts that they're light enough that you >could land several of them on different promising sites during one mission, >and that they bury themselves deeply enough in the ice to get largely below >the radiation-scrambled top layer without having to drill. What we really >need is a penetrator that doubles as a Cryobot -- that is, that can then >melt its way a modest distance further down into the ice. Since this >doesn't need to be done in any precisely direction-controlled way -- or for >any great depth -- on this initial mission, maybe the steel tips on the >penetrators could themselves be stuffed with enough Pu-238 that each >penetrator would continue slowly melting its way downward after its initial >impact? > >== >You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/ == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
