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TOPIC: ENDURA

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Apr 10 10:09 2010

Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-Ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer	Permalink

Antarctic diving robot practices for Europa Evidence found by NASA's Galileo spacecraft of an ocean on Europa put the giant Jovian moon on the A-list of worlds worth investigating for signs of extraterrestrial life. Exploring that ocean won't be easy: It's covered by ice perhaps as much as 100 kilometres thick. But late last year, a group of NASA-funded scientists and engineers took an important step toward figuring out how it might be done. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Apr 16 20:33 2009

Taylor Glacier Ecosystem	Permalink

Scientists have found an ancient ecosystem below an Antarctic glacier and learned that it survived millions of years by transforming sulphur and iron compounds for growth. Described in the April 17 issue of Science, the ecosystem lives without light or oxygen in a pool of brine trapped below Taylor Glacier and next to frozen Lake Bonney in eastern Antarctica, said John Priscu, co-author of the Science article. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Dec 27 23:15 2008

ENDURANCE	Permalink

A NASA robot tested last winter in an icy Wisconsin lake will complete a month long underwater mission in Antarctica on Thursday, having successfully explored dark, deep waters frozen off from the outside world tens of thousands of years ago. Managed by a team from Chicago and Texas, the robot has hit its marks while patrolling Lake Bonney, a body of water locked under 15 feet of ice. The Antarctic lake is the nearest thing on Earth to outer space, and scientists hope lessons learned there will inform a future hunt for life in the ice-covered oceans of Jupiter's frozen moon Europa. The robot overcame some technical surprises to gather information on the lake's internal structure - data many Antarctica experts once despaired of knowing - and spot a colony of microbes unlike any seen before. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Feb 11 22:56 2008

ENDURA	Permalink

A NASA-funded robotic probe is to be tested under ice to evaluate the systems ability to operate in the kind of extreme conditions found on Jupiters moon Europa. The Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer is a $2.3m project aimed at creating a vehicle designed to swim untethered under ice. The probe is designed to record conditions, take samples of microbial life and create 3D maps of the environment. Read more __________________

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