engineering

IceMole

IceMole is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand IceMole rather than just read about it. In short: IceMole is an autonomous ice research probe, incorporating a new type of ice-melting tip for the exploration of polar regions, glaciers, ice sheets, and extraterrestrial regions, developed by a team from the FH Aachen, a Fachhochschule (university of applied sciences) in Aachen, Germany. The advantage over previous probes is that the IceMole can change its direction and can be recovered after being used.

Key takeaways

IceMole belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect IceMole to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of IceMole from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

IceMole is an autonomous ice research probe, incorporating a new type of ice-melting tip for the exploration of polar regions, glaciers, ice sheets, and extraterrestrial regions, developed by a team from the FH Aachen, a Fachhochschule (university of applied sciences) in Aachen, Germany. The advantage over previous probes is that the IceMole can change its direction and can be recovered after being used. A driving ice screw allows the probe to drill through soil layers and other contaminations in the ice.

History

The IceMole is being developed using rapid prototyping. As of April 2011, the probe is in its first prototype and it has been designed to carry out the subsurface investigation of terrestrial glaciers and ice sheets. It is planned that future versions of the probe would be suitably adapted for extraterrestrial ice research, e.g. on the polar caps of Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa, or Saturn's moon Enceladus. The robot resulted from a student project at the Fachbereich Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik (Faculty of Aerospace Engineering) at the FH Aachen, led by Prof. Dr. Bernd Dachwald. The excavation is carried out by both drilling and melting of the ice. In a clean ice core, the probe can analyze the surrounding ice with measuring instruments. While drilling, the surrounding ice is not biologically contaminated. As of 2011, the project objectives are given as:

The project requirements also emphasised the need for maximum reliability, robustness, mobility, environmental security and autonomy.

IceMole 1 Heated tips in probes have been employed since the 1960s but the probes could only drill straight down, could not be recovered from deep intrusions and were halted by buildup of dirt and sediment, which would not permit heat transfer. To overcome these problems, the IceMole combines a screw with a melting tip. The first prototype IceMole is a pencil-shaped craft that is designed to autonomously deploy and dig itself into ice. It is a square tube of 225 cm2 (34.9 sq in) cross section. It has a 3 kW (4.0 hp) melting head at the tip which has differential heating in different parts. The robot is powered by a power generator on the surface and is attached by means of a cable, which relays the power supply, communication and data signals. The IceMole utilizes a 6 cm (2.4 in) long screw at its heated head that keeps firm contact while drilling with the ice being melted. The IceMole has separately controllable heating elements that can be manipulated to obtain differential heating. The differential heating permits the gradual change of direction.

The ice screw is located at the tip of the melting head and generates a driving force that presses the melting head against the ice. This enables the IceMole to penetrate soil and mud and also leads to a good conductive heat transfer when in contact with the ice. The thermally isolated ice screw transfers ice into the probe, where it can be analyzed in situ. It is planned that instruments will be fitted in the probe that will analyse the ice and send only the results to the surface. The technical specifications of IceMole1 are given below :

The IceMole team has developed the vehicle without a specific payload in mind. The vehicle has an inner chamber in which sensors and other instruments may be housed. In its recent tests, the IceMole carried an off-the-shelf camera. The team is also designing a fluorescence biosensor detector that could search for organic molecules in the ice.

IceMole 2

Since October 2010, the IceMole team is working on a redesign of the first IceMole. The Improvements are, amongst others, the optimization of the melting head and a completely newly developed gear. The new melting head has 12 separately controlled heating elements. These 12 cartridge heaters are arranged in a ring inside of the melting head. In addition, it has 2 wall heaters on each side in the rear of the probe. With this addition, the IceMole2 maneuverability improves over that of its predecessor. The new gear has been specially developed for this probe. Thus, the transmission has a higher efficiency and is more lightweight. It is planned to test IceMole2 in the summer of 2012. The planned technical specifications of IceMole2:

The probe has also been designed to drag a series of containers containing sensors which can be jettisoned on command and deployed permanently in specific locations in the ice. The team hopes to eventually work with other researchers that would use IceMole to drop sensors deep in icy environments. While the power supply for the first field trials on a glacier was provided by an external power generator on the surface, it is also planned that the heating power be provided by an on-board power source.

Trials The first field trials were carried out in the area of the Morteratsch Glacier in Switzerland during the summer of 2010. During the trials on the glacier, the following penetration tests have been successfully performed:

melting 45° upwards for 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) against gravity; melting horizontally for 5 m (16 ft); melting 45° downwards for 3 m (9.8 ft), thereby penetrating three obstructing non-ice layers (mud and sand found on the glacier) and driving a curve with a radius of 10 m (33 ft).

While IceMole moved at a leisurely 30 cm (12 in) per hour during its first trial run, optimal conditions could allow the craft to progress at more than three times that speed. The penetration speed will be increased for the next prototype. The test results show that the IceMole concept is a viable approach to deliver scientific instruments into deep ice and to recover them afterwards. Another advantage of the IceMole with respect to drilling is that biological contamination can be minimized and the process can be made highly autonomous, so that there is no need for an operator on the surface. The results were reported at the 2011 Antarctic Science Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin and the European Geosciences Union 2011 held at Vienna, Austria. The next trial run was scheduled to be held in the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2012.

The planned objectives for the field experiment in 2012 are given below.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with IceMole

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what IceMole claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to IceMole before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about IceMole ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of IceMole

In research: IceMole appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses IceMole in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: IceMole is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics German inventions, Hole making, Prototype robots, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for IceMole outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study IceMole in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what IceMole means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain IceMole out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is IceMole in simple terms?

Why does IceMole matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study IceMole?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on IceMole.