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Land a probe on Enceladus or Europa. Melt through the 3k of ice using nuclear powered heating rig. Swim around autonomously taking pictures of alien fish and samples of alien water.
Now here's the clever part. Instead of trying to transmit the data back to the surface through the ice, engage the
overhead heater and tunnel a new hole back up to the surface, helped by the positive pressure of the sub ice ocean. When the ice is totally breached the probe will be expelled into space of the back of a huge geyser, where it can either transmit it's data or head home.
geyser diagram
http://msnbcmedia4....celadus_geysers.gif
[simonj, May 17 2010]
geyser photo
http://apod.nasa.go...386_enceladus_r.jpg
[simonj, May 17 2010]
Black Monolith
http://en.wikipedia...ith_(Space_Odyssey)
Large, yet perfectly formed. [8th of 7, May 17 2010]
[link]
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I do think it's an interesting idea. However, if you have to melt
your way back out, there's a good chance the hole will freeze
shut behind you, robbing you of the rushing waters you need to
power your liftoff. |
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But if you snoop about, you might be able to find an active
geyser (probably by sound) and just use your heater in case you
find any narrow spots in the exit path. |
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That's pretty awesome, I hope there are fish there. And we could use the geyser energy to run our cities. |
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I wasn't trying to sound very confident. Like, if someone says they think there will be someone you haven't seen in a while at the party, you say 'That's pretty awesome, I hope there are fish there' ... that kind of thing, quest, you might not understand.. |
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Anyways, I did google "Enceladus life" and found some good evidence. |
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fish or no fish, the problem of getting the results back to Earth is identical. why must you bring up trivialities? |
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If we do find fish, I think we'd need to build lots of "research" vessels to go and do reasearch on all the fish. You have to test every individual fish, you see, just be be sure they all taste just as good. |
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//fish to be found on enceladus and europa. What are you basing that supposition on?// I don't know about the other one, but Europa is supposed to be a great contender for extra-terrestial life - it having water in abundance, and while it doesn't get much in the way of energy from the sun, it does get more than its fair share in the form of dynamic tidal forces from its parent planet to a) keep the water liquid beneath the icy outer-layer, b) provide an energy source for lifeforms to exploit. |
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The type of life you would expect to find on a water-world would certainly be aquatic (!) - actual fish might be a supposition too far. But who knows - if there's been enough time for the speed of movement to become a trait suppored by selection pressure, there might be stiffer bodied creatures that set up a localised waves to generate thrust - fins and tails are probably complementary to that type of motion so they'd probably be included as part of the package - the same way those features evolved independently in earth fish - and in fully aquatic mammals like the dolphin or whale and in other part-time wet mammals like walruses, otters and sea-people. |
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So yes, assuming life and a few billion years of selection to move beyond jelly-like blobs, you may expect to find fish - or rather, fish-like creatures. |
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Then again, despite the abundance of liquid water on Europa - it may be that there's little else in terms of chemical building blocks - maybe it's all ice and water - who know's what's under that myserious smooth surface? |
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Why not just leave a transponder on the surface and trail a tether down the bore? Then when the autonomous vehicle detaches, it can find its way back to the terminal point by following a sonar ping. You could leave the nuclear generator there and your submersible could return periodically to recharge and upload. |
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/When the ice is totally breached the probe will be expelled into space/ |
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- would this not happen on the way in as well? If not, because you posit that the ice will freeze behind it as it tunnels, would this not also prevent the blast into space part on the way out? |
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If the probe blasts its way in with explosives, or sends an icebuster down from orbit, it would probably find fish in that locale less frisky and easier to photograph. |
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Can radiation from the host planet provide any energy whatsoever? Those seem somewhat largish. |
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Yes, but you need an awful lot of Black Monoliths. |
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How about first we try to catch some of that geyser stuff and see if it contains any micro organisms. Then we can decide to do this. |
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"My God ! It's full of ... bugs ! |
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[21Q]//If you thought there were too many fish here
already//
I predict we'll discover croissants on Enceladus. |
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//How about first we try to catch some of that geyser stuff
and see if it contains any micro organisms. Then we can
decide to do this.// |
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Oddly enough, ESA were discussing this option at a meeting
recently. Actually, hold on - is Enceladus the one that spews
out hyrocarbon geysers? Or am I thinking of another one? |
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// am I thinking of another one? // |
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Yes. That's Sol 3, but only if you poke holes in the crust. |
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Which would be extremely foolish, so no truly sentient life form would do it. |
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//I predict we'll discover croissants on Enceladus.//
But how would the fish make them? |
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