----- Original Message ----- From: "Leonard DiFrancesco" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 12:26 PM Subject: Piezocone
> Is real time data as the probe explores beneath > the ice absolutely necessary? Or rather, could the information be stored > in the device then later shot back through the ice after > exploration then transmitted from the surface? Indeed it is -- the water-filled tunnel that the Cryobot melts in the ice freezes solid again less than a meter above its rear end (and the sheer pressure of the ice just a few hundred meters down would quickly squeeze the tunnel shut even if this didn't happen). The only way to get any vehicle back up to the surface is to have it melt its way all the way back up just as it melted its way down, using some kind of hooked propulsive system to grip the walls of the melt space and heave itself upward into the bargain -- and while Honeybee Robotics is working on the design of an "Inchworm" subsurface tunneler that could do just that, they readily admit that it's a project for considerably more distant in the future than the one-way Cryobot we're talking about. == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
