In truth, NASA's first real extra-terrestrial mining attempt -- out there, on Mars -- encountered unexpected near-sub-surface conditions. As we covered the ambitious effort in real time, it turns out that the regolith there is a grainy, icy sand, that readily clumped into tiny balls -- not unlike "Dippin' Dots". And. . . that stuff, in the deep freeze on Mars, simply absorbed the impact of the hammer / drill tip. . . and repeatedly fell in, on itself -- caved back in, around the drill head. There was no "bite" possible, with the tip. So, the Insight probe never made it more than 20 inches down -- let alone the aimed for depth of 15 feet.
Now, consider: the likely conditions on these distant moons, orbiting the gas giants, are very different (more challenging) -- miles and miles of thick, solid, rock hard ice. Moreover, NASA will need to drill down through all those miles -- not just 15 feet.
And so, the current lead proposal calls for a nuke-fuel-powered "melting drill-rig", one that uses both downward biting motions, and the intense heat of a nuke generator, to melt the associated tunnel, under the miles of crust -- and to do all this, entirely robotically. Nope -- no repair crew, if you throw a 20 foot section of pipe, and it binds up, below (for example, if one or more of these vast ice plates. . . snap, or shift, under the immense tidal forces of the nearby gas giant it orbits).
This is a formidable engineering and space science challenge, indeed. Here's the latest, from NASA:
. . .Various concepts for ocean access have been investigated over the past decades, ranging from robots that descend through crevasses to drills of varying types. One concept that has emerged as a leading candidate is the cryobot. A cryobot is a self-contained cylindrical probe that uses heat to melt the ice beneath it. The melted water then flows around the probe before refreezing behind it. Thermal ice drilling is so simple and effective that it has become a common tool for studying terrestrial glaciers and ice sheets. But how can we translate this technology to a system that can penetrate planetary icy crusts, which are colder, thicker, and more uncertain? [To say nothing of. . . perhaps wildly buckling, under the gravity of the nearby gas giant!]
This dilemma has been a core focus of researchers -- many of whom are supported by NASA’s Scientific Exploration Subsurface Access Mechanism for Europa (SESAME) and Concepts for Ocean worlds Life Detection Technology (COLDTech) programs -- for the past several years. In February 2023, NASA’s Planetary Exploration Science Technology Office (PESTO) convened a workshop at the California Institute of Technology, which brought together nearly 40 top researchers from diverse fields and institutions around the country to discuss progress in maturing this technology and to assess the challenges that remain.
Recent studies have made significant progress in refining our understanding of the ice shell environment, detailing a mission architecture, and maturing critical subsystems and technologies. In particular, workshop participants identified four key subsystems that drive the roadmap for developing a flight-ready architecture: the power, thermal, mobility, and communication subsystems. . . .
We will keep an eye on this, but it is certainly more than a decade away -- from any possible launch date. Smiling just the same. . . so, about 380 million miles out into the night, we'd be drilling into. . . a deeply hidden ocean, and with a smokin' hot drill bit, to boot. What a time to be. . . alive!
नमस्ते
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