On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Christlieb, Scott F. wrote:
> One grenade would go through the whole cabinet > in a few moments. On a larger scale, could we control and direct this type > of energy to quickly clear a path for Icepick? It would be a fast way to the > bottom of the ice. The problem is that cabinets don't contain a lot of material and the air around them isn't a very good heat conductor. So you get a lot of bang for your buck so to speak. As I mentioned in an offlist message its a mass-mass problem. For a chemical melting you probably have to throw as much mass at the ice as the mass you intend to melt. The Probe used in Antarctica was 12 cm in diameter. The depths drilled to were 1000-1200m. That isn't a small amount of mass. URL: http://helios.jpl.nasa.gov/%7Ebehar/AntWebSite/MainPage/documents/JPLAntIceProbe.pdf (its a couple of megabytes, so it may take a while to load on a slow connection). I don't see what the point is of the IcePIC group attempting to drop a probe 500' when NASA has already gone much further (though they drilled the holes with non-probe machinery). Also, if you want a probe design the simplest way to get one is to file an FOI request with NASA to cough up the complete details, blueprints, specs, etc. for their probe. If you ask nicely, Dr. Behar might just turn them over without the legal overhead. If you ask very nicely Dr. Behar might even let you use their probe! Robert == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
