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Britain Suspends Exploratory Drilling of Antarctic Lake
A British plan to blast a path through more than two miles of ice to reach an Antarctic lake has been suspended because of technical problems. From the article: "In a move that clears the way for U.S. and Russian teams to take the lead, Professor Martin Siegert said technical problems and a lack of fuel had forced the closure on Christmas Day of the 7-million-pound ($11 million) project, which was looking for life forms and climate change clues in the lake-bed sediment.
'This is of course, hugely frustrating for us, but we have learned a lot this year,' said Siegert of the University of Bristol, principal investigator for the mission, which was headed by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
'By the end, the equipment was working well, and much of it has now been fully field-tested,' he said on the BAS website."
(even a big hole) give to the Germans or the Chinese.
we're abandoning the project.
R-i-i-i-i-i-ight.
abandoning != suspending
They say it will be unique per lake maybe true maybe not we shall see
Some alien showed up and started killing off the people.
After all what do you expect to find in an Antarctic lake
Maybe another Stargate, or an Ancient base
Given that one of the major controversies here is the danger of contamination of the lake (both for negating the scientific value, and the lake ecosystem itself)... Isn't the pursuance of 3 independent, parallel drilling projects solely in the name of national egos, a minor outrage?
,for resource extraction?
The British scientists decided to abandon the mission after trying for 20 hours to connect two holes in the ice that were needed for the hot-water drill to work, said a BAS spokeswoman.
Without a connection between the two holes, the hot water would seep into the porous surface layers of ice and be lost, reducing the pressure and rendering the drill ineffective
I RTFA and all I can say is "Huh?"
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
'nuff said.
They were probably digging near a certain mysterious and terrible mountain range. Upon breaking through into a large underground cavern, the team was set upon by some 4 foot albino penguins and a shoggoth.
Be gone from my sight or prepare to feel my flaming wraith!
Drill baby drill!
They are abandoning the project because they don't have enough fuel on site to be able to drill down to the lake.
This is because they are using hot water to melt their way downwards, which is fine, but much of the water is escaping sideways into cracks in the ice. This means they needed more water to reach their objective. The water has to be melted from ice collected on the surface, and that takes fuel. Not enough fuel: stop wasting everybody's time and money.
One inconsequential untouched natural feature. It's not going to tell you anything of consequence. Why fuck with it?
There are enough wonders of science all around us, readily to hand, and already contaminated by modern man, to last a trillion lifetime's worth of search for knowledge.
British ingenuity pissed all over by lack of funds yet again. Being cynical and miserable is fun; but without a good does of U.S. level investment you can't come first. Second place with a better idea is shite.
If they wait a decade or so, the ice will melt off enough to make drilling trivial and much less costly to research climate change and early life forms. Unless, of course, the research is a ruse and the real objective is to seek out any oil, gas, or mineral reserves under the ice.
Why drill a hole in in the Antarctic ice when it's so much cheaper to make a hole in the antarctic ozone layer?
Yes, summertime in Antarctica is just a few days old and they're already out of fuel because the equipment is working so well!
No, failure like you find in your comment. Nothing to see there. Just a waste of time. Thanks for NOTHING.
Nice set of photos here, and the biggest hole I ever saw:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2253602/Antarctic-Lake-Ellsworth-project-called-British-team-forced-abandon-7m-project-drill-signs-life.html
Sent from my ENIAC