How to melt thru dirty ice?

In probing a icy moon with a probe that melts it's way down, how do you
handle the dirt that accumlates in the bottom of the melt hole? If it is
just dust I can see that a heavy probe will just continue on, but in the case
of gravel/rock size chunks the probe will end up blocked after a time. Is
drilling at a slant a good enough solution?

Earl Colby Pottinger

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Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:
In probing a icy moon with a probe that melts it's way down, how do
you handle the dirt that accumlates in the bottom of the melt hole?
If it is just dust I can see that a heavy probe will just continue
on, but in the case of gravel/rock size chunks the probe will end up
blocked after a time.

Won't that depend on the shape of the business end of the probe and
the density of the gravel/rock? In my mind I've got this picture of
stuff remaining melted along the sides of the probe and "impurities"
(up to a size I guess) ending-up around the sides before meltfluid
refreezes around it.

rick jones
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Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:

In probing a icy moon with a probe that melts it's way down, how do you
handle the dirt that accumlates in the bottom of the melt hole? If it is
just dust I can see that a heavy probe will just continue on, but in the case
of gravel/rock size chunks the probe will end up blocked after a time. Is
drilling at a slant a good enough solution?

Earl Colby Pottinger

--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp


Wouldn't the heat "contaminate" the experiment in the first place?

It's got to be a serious change in the enviornment...


Richard