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

Let's hope they get it done right.

[alexwcovington]

This is a good idea, but it'll take a lot to make it work right, especially difficult while the NASA budget is flung all over the place.

It is especially important with all the water they'll be dealing with, that they take much more care with biological scrubbing... The recent news about the bacteria on the Mars landers doesn't bode well for sending anything 100% clean to the edges of space.

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Second of 12

[DynaSoar]

There's only 10 more of the most recent NIAC phase 1 awards to trickle through the delay lines between the nodes of the blogohypersphere and find their way to /. as "news".

Or you can get it over with and read them all at http://www.niac.usra.edu/studies/studies.jsp?cpnum =05-01

You can also check the "call for proposals" link and wait until they open it up again, and send your Great Big Idea for consideration. Also, students can do the same, for scholarship money at http://www.niac.usra.edu/students/index.html