Britain Suspends Exploratory Drilling of Antarctic Lake 37
A British plan to blast a path through more than two miles of ice to reach an Antarctic lake has been suspended because of technical problems. From the article: "In a move that clears the way for U.S. and Russian teams to take the lead, Professor Martin Siegert said technical problems and a lack of fuel had forced the closure on Christmas Day of the 7-million-pound ($11 million) project, which was looking for life forms and climate change clues in the lake-bed sediment.
'This is of course, hugely frustrating for us, but we have learned a lot this year,' said Siegert of the University of Bristol, principal investigator for the mission, which was headed by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
'By the end, the equipment was working well, and much of it has now been fully field-tested,' he said on the BAS website."
Re:If you want to manufacture something right, (Score:4, Funny)
The Germans would give you a highly sophisticated hole, while China would copy that hole and sell millions of cheap holes in the market
Re: (Score:1)
The Chinese hole would also collapse upon itself after 50 hours of use while proponents of Chinese outsourcing let on that bringing all our money to China for poor quality goods is sustainable and desirable.
Re:Now that the equipment has been shown to work.. (Score:5, Insightful)
abandoning != suspending
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Re:Now that the equipment has been shown to work.. (Score:4, Informative)
They are abandoning the project because they don't have enough fuel on site to be able to drill down to the lake.
This is because they are using hot water to melt their way downwards, which is fine, but much of the water is escaping sideways into cracks in the ice. This means they needed more water to reach their objective. The water has to be melted from ice collected on the surface, and that takes fuel. Not enough fuel: stop wasting everybody's time and money.
Let me guess (Score:1)
Some alien showed up and started killing off the people.
After all what do you expect to find in an Antarctic lake
Maybe another Stargate, or an Ancient base
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Taking flamethowers on a scientific jaunt just isn't cricket old boy.
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> What do you expect ....?
"... They're afloat in a bubble of pressurized air wedged against the underside of the Antarctic ice sheet: below them stretch the still, supercooled waters of Lake Vostok.
They're waiting for a rendezvous...."
A Colder War
a novelette by Charles Stross
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm [infinityplus.co.uk]
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Triple Redundancy (Score:2, Insightful)
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They are drilling into different lakes...
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Given that the lakes have not only been isolated from the rest of the terrestrial environment for eons, and from each other... no, it's not a minor outrage. It's good science to see how evolution has proceeded in each and how they are different from one another.
Don't mistake the media's preoccupation with "firsts" for the reasons behind the drilling.
What a crappy article (Score:2)
The British scientists decided to abandon the mission after trying for 20 hours to connect two holes in the ice that were needed for the hot-water drill to work, said a BAS spokeswoman.
Without a connection between the two holes, the hot water would seep into the porous surface layers of ice and be lost, reducing the pressure and rendering the drill ineffective
I RTFA and all I can say is "Huh?"
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The British scientists decided to abandon the mission after trying for 20 hours to connect two holes in the ice that were needed for the hot-water drill to work, said a BAS spokeswoman.
Without a connection between the two holes, the hot water would seep into the porous surface layers of ice and be lost, reducing the pressure and rendering the drill ineffective
I RTFA and all I can say is "Huh?"
The next sentence explains it, they have not enough water in reserve to compensate:
The team tried to melt and dig more snow to compensate for the water loss, but without success.
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The British scientists decided to abandon the mission after trying for 20 hours to connect two holes in the ice that were needed for the hot-water drill to work, said a BAS spokeswoman.
Without a connection between the two holes, the hot water would seep into the porous surface layers of ice and be lost, reducing the pressure and rendering the drill ineffective
I RTFA and all I can say is "Huh?"
A case of hole overrun. They tried to sink 7 million pounds and couldn't ... oh wait, they could.
Wiring by Lucas. (Score:1)
'nuff said.
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The Prince of Darkness is now the Archfiend of Antarctic Drilling.
What really happened (Score:1)
Just leave it the hell alone (Score:1)
One inconsequential untouched natural feature. It's not going to tell you anything of consequence. Why fuck with it?
There are enough wonders of science all around us, readily to hand, and already contaminated by modern man, to last a trillion lifetime's worth of search for knowledge.
Typical underfunding. (Score:1)
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Eddie Izzard does a good bit about that in his Dressed to Kill show.
Fortunately, there's always enough money for pretty horses and regalia for royal weddings.
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Antarctic Holes (Score:1)
Drilling Photos Here (Score:2)
Nice set of photos here, and the biggest hole I ever saw:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2253602/Antarctic-Lake-Ellsworth-project-called-British-team-forced-abandon-7m-project-drill-signs-life.html [dailymail.co.uk]