Would information regarding MIT's Robopike (a robot
that imitates the behavior of a fish) be of use to Icepick?
Relevant URL:
Larry
----- Original Message -----From: Christlieb, Scott F.Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 10:34 AMTo: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'Subject: RE: Guidance System for Icepick I, and Cryobot thoughts
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:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
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.
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