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NASA Preps Mars Underground Mole
Roland Piquepaille writes "People at NASA never cease to surprise me. Searching for water or presence of past life of Mars obviously needs drilling beneath the surface. So NASA is developing the Mars Underground Mole (MUM), based on a previous device used for the European Beagle 2 mission. But here is the twist. MUM will include sensors which were previously used to collect spectral imagery of Earth from pilotless aircrafts, especially Hawaii, according to NASA. While the Mole will stay on the surface on Mars and drill up to 5 meters deep, it will transmit data via a fiber optic cable to a digital array scanning interferometer (DASI). And the spectral images produced by the DASI will enable researchers to identify possible water, ice, organics and minerals under the surface on Mars. And this MUM will be a small one, weighing less than a kilogram for a length of only 50 centimeters. For more details and pictures about MUM, please read this overview."
The cryobot, which my advisor here at UH built for the Martian polar cap, as well as Europa. It was a tube that would be lowered nose-first from a lander onto the ice, and melt its way down using a heated tip in the nose, taking readings along the way. They actually tested it out in the Antarctic, but unfortunately, I wasn't here at the time, so didn't get to go along :(
Come to think of it, some of the guys right down the hall have been working on the airborne hyperspectral imager mentioned in the article; maybe I'll go ask them about this.
It seems as if space exploration has become a veritable black hole for funding. As my grandmother said, "They should fund heaven on earth before going to explore it." Though space exploration *may* have some good effects on research (like joysticks), I feel that we first need to invest in research to, say, cheapen AIDS drugs or provide cleaner water.
MOUNT TAPE U1439 ON B3, NO RING
Useless trivia: The original Beagle drilling technology is is based upon a Hong Kong dentist's idea. The name of the guy is Dr. Ng.
Isn't this similar to that failed mission (the one with the english/metric issue or something like that) where two probes were to crash in to the planet, then drill down some distance to take samples?
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
should not be sending anything but orbiters until we have the tech to survive longer..We should be building SG:Atlantis 'type' agrifarms and de-salinizations plants off the continental shelf now, and when we can survive down there long term, THEN WE START INTO SPACE with people for real, until then we should be building orbital factories for crytalline growth tech and other industries that could benefit hugely from either low/null grav, no pressure, or things that just are too scary to do at home..try the shadowline on Luna. Oh well sounds really straight foward and easy so it can't possibly be so, and will prolly never happen :( In the US, too many greedy companies hoarding info and tech, they'd rather go under and bankrupt with the assets than share any profit.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?