Cryobot

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Cryobot prototype

Artist's impression of a cryobot deploying a hydrobot

A cryobot or Philberth-probe is a robot designed to operate in or around water ice.

1 Features and technology
2 History
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Features and technology

The cryobot is a surface-controlled, nonrecoverable instrumented vehicle that can penetrate polar ice sheets down to 3600 meters by melting. It can be used to measure temperature, stress, ice movement, and seismic, acoustic and dielectric properties. It can also be used for other investigations with remote instrumentation. The probe consists of a hot point for melt penetration, instrumentation for control and measurement functions, two supply conductor coils to link the probe with the surface for transmission of power and measurement signals, and a reservoir section. The probe is filled with a dielectric fluid.

[edit] History

The cryobot was invented by German physicist Karl Philberth, who first demonstrated it in the 1960s as part of the International Glaciological Greenland Expedition (EGIG), achieving drilling depths in excess of 1,000 meters.

In the early 1990s, a Russian drilling rig discovered Lake Vostok below two miles of ice. The lake is thought to be uncontaminated. Plans are underway to use a cryobot to explore the lake, which is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world. The lake may offer a glimpse into what types of microbes lived thousands of years ago as its ecosystem has been cut off from the outside world.Cryobots are currently being tested in Antarctica as prototypes for a space probe that may someday penetrate the icy surface of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and explore the liquid water ocean thought to be present below the ice, which may harbour extraterrestrial life^[1]^[2]^[3].