Cryobot

Cryobot prototype

Artist's impression of a cryobot deploying a hydrobot

Prototype IceMole a further development

A cryobot or Philberth-probe is a robot designed to operate in or around water ice.

Features and technology

The cryobot is a surface-controlled, nonrecoverable instrumented vehicle that can penetrate polar ice sheets down to 3600 meters by melting. It can be used to measure temperature, stress, ice movement, and seismic, acoustic and dielectric properties. It can also be used for other investigations with remote instrumentation. The probe consists of a hot point for melt penetration, instrumentation for control and measurement functions, two supply conductor coils to link the probe with the surface for transmission of power and measurement signals, and a reservoir section. The probe is filled with a dielectric fluid.

History

The cryobot was invented by German physicist Karl Philberth, who first demonstrated it in the 1960s as part of the International Glaciological Greenland Expedition (EGIG), achieving drilling depths in excess of 1,000 meters. In 1973 British scientists in Antarctica performed airborne ice-penetrating radar survey and detected a possible lake. ^[1] In 1991, the European remote sensing satellite ERS-1 confirmed the 1973 discovery of a large lake below four kilometers of ice, named Lake Vostok.^[2] The lake is thought to be uncontaminated. NASA was planning to use a cryobot to explore the lake,^[3][4] which is the fifth largest freshwater lake in the world. The lake may offer a glimpse into what types of microbes lived thousands of years ago as its ecosystem has been cut off from the outside world 15 million years ago. Cryobots have been tested in Antarctica as prototypes for a space probe that may someday penetrate the icy surface of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and explore the liquid water ocean thought to be present below the ice, which may harbour extraterrestrial life.^[5][6][7]

See also

• Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
• IceMole

References

1. ^ Oswald, G. K. A.; Robin, G. de Q. (1973). "Lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet". Nature 245 (5423): 251–254. doi:10.1038/245251a0. 
2. ^ "Ice Station Vostok". Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/vostok_pr.html. Retrieved 2011-01-31. 
3. ^ Ice Explorer Conceived for Other Worlds Gets Arctic Test
4. ^ Robot to Explore Buried Ice Lake
5. ^ SPACE.com -- Cryobot Explores Antarctica, Preparing for ET Hunt
6. ^ http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2004/pdf/2041.pdf#search=%22philberth%20deepest%20ice%20drilling%22
7. ^ Searching For Ice And Ocean Biogenic Activity On Europa And Earth