Probes Could Swim Through Ice on Mars or Europa

Fraser Cain writes "NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) has funded a proposal to explore the idea of a robotic probe that could melt its way through the polar icecaps on Mars or ice covering Europa's ocean. A swarm of these these 100 kg probes would sample pockets of air in the ice as they maneuvered around in formation, searching for evidence of life - either past or present."

Comments

Don't you think....

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

They should fix the shuttle gas gauge sender first?

Re:Don't you think....

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

So I'm a troll... What the fsk does a poster have to do to be funny? Hell, there's only 12 posts, not like I'm wasting bandwidth...

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Swim through ice?

[rossdee]

Don't you normally need H2O in its liquid form in order to swim?

While Europa may have liquid beneath the ice crust, the probe will still have to get through that crust first. Will it be taking along the necessary tools (Icehouse, auger and sufficient quantities of alcohol which seem to be required by ice fishermen to get through the ice on the lakes around here?

Re:Let's hope they get it done right.

[gstoddart]

And what if there are intelligent things in the ice?
I bet they'll wonder why we launched flaming balls of death at them...

Nah. The American Information Minister will announce that we have liberated the intelligent beings from their ice-prison and plan on installing a democracy and a Wal Mart. :-P

Obligatory

[Z0mb1eman]

"All these worlds are yours, except Europa"

Better be careful what they swim into... :p

Re:Obligatory

[ChadN]

For another bit of fun, I just noticed that Google maps now has a map of the moon landing sites available, in celebration of the anniversary of the first landing.

http://moon.google.com/

Try zooming in all the way...

As for exploring other systems that could be life supporting, as a NASA contractor, I hope we a) make it a bigger priority, and b) don't fuck it up by contaminating anything.

I used to think, when I was young, that if we found extraplanetary life, in my lifetime, I would be alive to see an amazing change in orthodoxy, both religious, scientific, and otherwise. Now, both religion (crudely lumping the most popular ones together) and science seem to expect such a discovery, and each has already adapted and prepared for the day when such discovery is made. I'm personally hoping what we find completely defies prediction.