Encleadian Ocean Likely!

[Exoscientist]

How large will the pressure be in the low gravity?

The pressure itself its not an huge problem, then drilling for oil you often drill kilometers down into rock.

One problem might be shift in the ice will break the signal cable, as its long it will have to be thin as in optical fibre.

you will have to use an reactor, no way to bring an 40 kilometer power cable.

using water pumps you can increase effect, you melt water then use it to cool the reactor and get hot water to melt the ice below.

Pressure would not be terribly high because of the Moon's low gravity. Probably in the range our deep-sea submersibles already reach.

Bob Clark

[vger]

Just like what happened last time NASA launched a nuclear reactor into space. Get a grip, the majority people are about as likely to seriously believe any launch containing nuclear material is a secret plot as they were to get behind the astrologer who sued NASA over deep impact.

On the international scale, there's a heck of a lot of paranoia. In the case of ruffled feathers as a result of a nuclear device being launched from U.S. soil, I'm mainly thinking of Russia, NK, and Iran. The Outer Space Treaty hadn't even been signed yet when SNAP was launched.

If this model of the tiger stripes is correct, it might be possible to travel through them directly to the ocean below

Yeah, after over a week of talking about 'drilling' options, that had crossed my mind. These fissures have got to be pretty big and I doubt they would immediately close once the plume stopped. The lander would just have to stay in orbit for a while and wait for the right opportunity to present itself.

Edited April 10, 2014 by vger

[ialdabaoth]

Or attach a big grunty acoustic modem to the underside of the ice and transmit it all as sound waves? Low bandwidth, but we're not in a hurry. You'd have to have some good maps of the properties of the ice though.

And if there IS life down there, we gain a reputation as the most obnoxious species in the galaxy.

[vger]

And if there IS life down there, we gain a reputation as the most obnoxious species in the galaxy.

Sentient Encleadian Lifeform: We're going to go fire some warning shots at the neighbors, they're playing their radio too loud again in the middle of the night.

[Idobox]

If you stick your sonar to the ice, you could choose a frequency that travels better in ice that in water, allowing for efficient transfer without starting the first interplanetary war over noise.