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."

Comments

Reminds me of...

[Ariane 6]

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.

Call me cynical . . .

[homeobocks]

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.

Re:Call me cynical . . .

[ergean]

Space eploration is nothing compared to military expenses.
So get out of your hole - there is no haven on earth .

Any evolution in medicine would make us whis we invested more in space eploration. You'll cry for space in 30 years from now. Overcrowd -> lack of resources -> war. So cure more people to wipe them out with bombs.

Any way you have it, we need space exploration more than an instant cure for all desises.

So stop listening to what your grandmother says, and start thinking for youself.
Think about weather forcast, internet, teflon, n's thousand of tv channels, asteroids, aliens and mostly about space.

And what the hell would you do with 1.000 billions you save in 40 years?
Trust me you don't want to know. You have no assurance that the money would be used in a better way.

Re:Call me cynical . . .

[johannesg]

Your grandmother evidently thinks space exploration is useless and should be stopped until _all_ problems here on Earth are solved. That is, until we have no more terrorists, peace in the middle east, cures for all diseases, no more corruption, hate, violence, or spam; no more drug problems, no more traffic accidents, plentiful resources for everyone, and little girls taking care of all the kittens. Presumably she also wants us all to live in a utopian world without government or money, where people are nice to each other from the goodness of their hearts?

Presumably, once we have achieved all that we will finally be allowed to explore the heavens. Can your grandmother provide some sort of timescale? I'm asking, because I want to *see* that first man on Mars. Right now I think the chances of that are about fifty/fifty, but if she has her way I doubt there will ever be a generation that does.

Finally, look up how much money your country spends on defence, how much it spends on healthcare, and finally how much it spends on space exploration. I'm sure there will be readers who can provide these numbers, but I can already tell you that space exploration will be less than a percent of any of the other two.

Re:Call me cynical . . .

[argStyopa]

I wouldn't call you cynical, only naive.

Space exploration is a perfect example of the "give a man a fish..." paradigm.

The problems of humanity are endless. And frankly, we've solved most of them. Now it's a question of distribution and dissemination.

But does anyone doubt that in 1000 years we're going to be colonizing other planets and spreading the human race across the galaxy? We'll STILL have the same human problems of violence, greed, selfishness, etc. - I think they are endemic to the human animal.

I can see your grandma saying 80 years ago "why are we funding these silly things called airplanes? They are unsafe and barely can stay up in the air - what use are they? Use that money for something important, like feeding the starving."

And she'd be wrong.

Prediction

[PatientZero]

While drilling one of the many holes, the Mole will uncover a crystalline life form that lives in the underground Martian water table. The salt-based life will attempt to communicate with it with flashy lights, but of course the NASA "scientists" will be oblivious to the obviously higher form of intelligence -- besides, they've got a schedule to meet. In a desperate attempt to save their unique species from extinction, the life forms will seize control of the Mole and proceed to attack and destroy the other Mars Rovers using its drill.

Finally, Beagle II will appear from out of nowhere, disable the Mole, negotiate a peace treaty with the new life, and usher in a new era of human-alien cooperation.

Happy Martians

[Anonymous Coward]

Today Martians sighed in relief as their underground civilization is 6 meters beneath Mars' surface.

hmm

[Turn-X Alphonse]

So we sent a dog... now a mole... whats next? A swallow?

Dental Drilling Technology

[qaguru]

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.

How Many Moles?

[MooseByte]

I wonder how many of these little robo-critters they could deploy in a single landing? Sure seems like a swarm of the little buggers spreading out for not only redundancy but increased geographical coverage would be a big plus.

Looks like that base station each is tethered to would put a kink in that idea though.

And of course if the subterranean residents interpret the swarm as an invasion, Lucy's gonna have some 'splainin to do...

A _real_ mission??

[acceber]

Now, let's wait until a real Mars mission comes to see if MUM really works.

Is that implying that the Mars exploration mission of Spirit and Opportunity was NOT a REAL mission? Spirit and Opportunity has been one of the most successful missions that NASA has ever undertaken, those rovers have surpassed their use-by-date by more than 3 months!

If that wasn't a real Mars mission, then what exactly is considered to be a real Mars mission?

obligatory stupid joke

[rritterson]

so, MUM's the word?

What Roland Piquepaille really means & REAL LI

[Anonymous Coward]

"...please read this overview."

TRANSLATION:

...please support and increase Roland Piquepaille spam and advertising clickthrough rates.

If you really want more details and pictures about the Mars Underground Mole then you can

• read this SpaceDaily four-part article on Mars Drillers
• read the Mars Underground Mole PDF with diagrams, photos and tables
• look at a whole range of Mars-related projects from the 2003 Sixth International Conference on Mars
• read a Deutsche Welle interview with German Aerospace Center Chairman Sigmar Wittig - DLR developed the Mars Express mole that inspired the MUM project
• read a National Space Society two-part interview with Dr. Brian Glass, MUM co-investigator
• read about a MUM inspired student project or
• watch a NASA Mars Underground Mole Quicktime movie animation.

It's much better than supporting craven self-interested people who are just after advertising like Roland Piquepaille, blog spammer.

It fails it..?

[Penguinshit]

NASA is planning on using drilling technology similar to Beagle 2.

What technology is that -- running headlong into the planet at high speed? Seeing as how we never heard whimper one out of Beagle, I don't think that's such a good plan...