Sunday, December 30, 2012
Antarctic subglacial drilling effort suspended
Studying some of Antarctica’s hundreds of subglacial lakes will offer clues to whether ice-covered planets and moons could also support life. But after drilling two boreholes next to one another, each to 300 meters deep, engineers could not connect the two underground cavities that were meant to recirculate drilling water to the surface and keep it from contaminating the lake below. The progress was slower a calculation showed us that we didn’t have enough fuel to get to the surface of the lake. A solution to this is better equipment. A barrier to this solution is the equipment is too expensive.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/347299/description/Antarctic_subglacial_drilling_effort_suspended
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It is amazing to think that there could be planets out there that could support life. It is even more amazing that scientist could figure something like this out just by drilling into a sub glacial lake. I agree though, they do need better equipment up there.
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