Hi Mike, I finally got a chance to read all your journals. I was wondering about your scientific instrumentation. How are you putting it under the ice? I see that you are drilling down into ice with your hot water drill. How much ice do you need to drill through at your experimental site? How far is this site from your current location, or are you already there? I was thinking you had a robotic device that was going to go into the water with your instrumentation. Is this the case? If so, where can I see a picture of that? I looked on our team's website, but did not find it anywhere.

Thanks! Betsy Wilkening Tucson, AZ

Mike LeBaron

Hi Betsy,Thanks for reading through the journals.
Here are some of the answers to your questions.
Right now we are not at the final drill location - we're still near
McMurdo where the whole process will be tested before going to the deep
field. Our "real" location is about 500 miles away from McMurdo along
the South Pole Traverse Route. It will take the traverse group 10-12
days to drag the equipment there on huge sleds.
The instrument package is about 10 inches in diameter and is modular so
different pieces are put together depending on what tests are being
done. The longest assembly is about 31 feet and can weight around 400
pounds. At the real location the drill will melt a 12 inch diameter or
so hole down through 800 meters (2500 feet) of ice. The tool string
will be lowered down the hole on a special cable that carries electric
power and has fiber optics for sending the data and pictures back to the
surface.
The original plan was to send a really cool submersible down to
investigate the grounding line, the place where the ice meets the sea
floor. That part of the program is on hold until next year. The web
site has been rebuilt and the SIR (sub-ice rover)hasn't made it back on
yet, but you can see images and a story at
http://ksj.mit.edu/tracker/tag/sub-ice-rover-0
I hope this helps. Keep checking in and see what we're doing.