Slashdot Mirror
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."
abandoning != suspending
They say it will be unique per lake maybe true maybe not we shall see
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?
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!
The Germans would give you a highly sophisticated hole, while China would copy that hole and sell millions of cheap holes in the market
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Taking flamethowers on a scientific jaunt just isn't cricket old boy.
> What do you expect ....?
"... They're afloat in a bubble of pressurized air wedged against the underside of the Antarctic ice sheet: below them stretch the still, supercooled waters of Lake Vostok.
They're waiting for a rendezvous...."
A Colder War
a novelette by Charles Stross
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
'nuff said.
The Chinese hole would also collapse upon itself after 50 hours of use while proponents of Chinese outsourcing let on that bringing all our money to China for poor quality goods is sustainable and desirable.
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!
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.
Nothing that sinister, they just wanted to be back in time for Eastenders.
Eddie Izzard does a good bit about that in his Dressed to Kill show.
Fortunately, there's always enough money for pretty horses and regalia for royal weddings.
Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
There would be even more money for that crap if the investment money put into UK project was by UK companies and not US firms. I'd point to ARM in Cambridge to say that's how its done;but as Apple and VLSI are US based investors ... bugger.
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