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Cryobot Ice-Penetrating Probe

The cylindrical Cryobot probe for exploring into deep ice is suspended from a tripod at the beginning of a field test in the Arctic by researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. Team members from JPL included (from left) Robert Ivlev, Daniel Helmick, Wayne Zimmerman and Lloyd French. The team camped on a glacier on the Norwegian administered island of Spitsbergen, above the Arctic Circle, for more than a week to run the test. The Cryobot technology has been proposed for possible use in exploring through ice on Jupiter's moon Europa and on Mars' northern polar cap, as well as for under-ice environments on Earth.