I was thinking that we could enhance the vehicle's ability to negotiate changes in direction by giving it a head that swiveled. The ability to bend in the middle would also be helpful.
I keep imagining that the Europa Icepick could ultimately take on a snake-like form. The head would do the driving and the tail would follow along. -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Moomaw [mailto:moomaw@;cwnet.com] Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 4:19 AM To: Europa Icepick Subject: Re: Guidance System for Icepick I, and Cryobot thoughts ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 7:24 PM Subject: Guidance System for Icepick I, and Cryobot thoughts 1) reverse course or switch head to tail, and backtrack, along the same tunnel, 2) using a hydrogen filled balloon, it could presumeably float back to the surface. The hydrogen bag might presumeably be stored in the front of the Europa cryobot. Once the cryobot is prepared to reverse course, the bag might be filled with hydrogen electolyzed from the local ice. 3) At that point, the cryobot tail heats up to become the nose, and the model cuts through the ice, and floats back to the surface, slowly but surely, on a bag of hydrogen below it. ____________________ Actually, it's a rather intereting one, and the mechanism involved wouldn't have to be nearly as complex as the one you propose. All you have to do is arrange for the cryobot, once its descent is complete, to reduce its total density below that of liquid water -- that is, give it positive buoyancy like a submarine -- and it would rise to the TOP of any meltwater space it produced, allowing it to melt its way back up if it had a similar heater on its top end. This could be done by having it simply drop ballast (perhaps its lower end?), with the Cryobot having enough low-density internal space inside its hull (perhaps filled with a lower-density pressure-compensating liquid) to give it positive buoyancy afterwards. But keep in mind that, just as it will probably take several years to melt its way down to the bottom of Europa's ice crust, it will take just as long to melt its way back up. == 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/