----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2002 6:25 PM Subject: Re: Guidance System for Icepick I, and Cryobot thoughts
In a message dated 11/1/2002 9:27:57 AM Alaskan Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Something has really been nagging me and I wanted to throw it out to the group. The assumption up to this point is that ther would be debris to navigate around. Why? Unless physics has changed, ice floats. Why would ice pick up bolders and other various sized rocks if the entire iceflow is sitting on an ocean? I can see small items getting carried away but anything bigger than a pebble is gonna be hard pressed to hang around for the upward journey. On Europa, it's not upwelling of rocks, but asteroids and chondrites that would fill the role of 'raisins' in the pudding. Additionally, Europa orbits in the path of sulphur particles emanating from Io -- I don't know what impact sulphur mixed with water ice would have, but presumably, it would impact its melting properties. _______________________________ Yes, the problem is mostly meteoritic debris falling onto Europa's surface over the eons (there will be a lot of it, thanks to Jupiter's intense gravity) and then gradually getting buried by geological processes). Carbonaceous chondrite debris from both asteroids and comets may actually supply Europa with a lot of the organic compounds any life forms would need, but it will also produce an obstacle course for any Cryobot. Another problem is indeed sulfur particles dumped from Io -- especially since Robert Carlson thinks the dark areas on Europa are actually areas where the sulfur deposited on Europa's surface from Io is unusually concentrated, because the relative warmth from "diapirs" of unusually warm ice slowly rising from underneath has caused the surface ice to sublimate unto vapor at an unusually fast rate, leaving a concentration of sulfur behind in that spot. Carlson thinks that Jupiter's radiation has actually transformed most of Europa's surface sulfur into sulfuric acid -- which would substantially lower the melting point of Europa's ice, making it easier for the Cryobot (to the extent that its hull is acid-resistant) -- but the elemental sulfur and sulfate salts remaining in the ice could very quickly cake into a block of solid material ahead of the Cryobot's nose, as has been pointed out here earlier. == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
