Re: Guidance System for Icepick I, and Cryobot thoughts

[JHByrne]

In a message dated 11/1/2002 8:04:34 AM Alaskan Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

Would information regarding MIT's Robopike (a robot
that imitates the behavior of a fish) be of use to Icepick?

Relevant URL:

http://web.mit.edu/towtank/www/pike/

Larry

Yes, I think so, particularly considering that so far, we haven't come up with a good means of steering this beast.  I have considerable concerns that if/when a terrestial Icepick is developed (let along a Europa/Mars version), it could be completely blocked by a rock the size of a fist.
If we could figure out some way to wiggle past such obstacles, we would have done a huge leap forward for this project.

Bruce Moomaw's article, suggesting, as Robt. Bradbury pointed out, that we need AT LEAST a kW of power also concerns me, and suggests that we are going to have to come up with some heating source from chemical interaction (thermite/thermate/magnesium, etc), instead of merely relying on electricity from a battery.
It's also interesting that the probe developed in the 1960s did have considerable trouble with meltwater, so much that they went to the trouble of pumping it back out of the hole.  Read Moomaw's first extract on that test.

-- JHB