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How Low Can You Possibly Sink?
Dec. 6th, 2007 01:06 pmBack in the days of Iron Men and Wooden Reactors, William Mansfield Adams, then a geophysicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, came up with an idea to explore deep beneath the Earth.
To those interested in constructing probes to penetrate the ice of Europa's surface and investigate the (hypothetical) global ocean beneath, I recommend a study of the Meltmobile. (My word, not Adams's.)
To quote Time's 1964 article on the idea, which is where I heard about it:
Adams' crust piercer, which he patented and assigned to the AEC, is a high-temperature nuclear reactor designed to melt its way into rock. The reactor is 2 ft. to 3 ft. in diameter, and its active material (uranium oxide) is enclosed in a cylinder of beryllium oxide, which serves as a heat insulator. The lower point, mostly tungsten, is heavy, while the upper point, mostly beryllium, is light.
Puddle of Lava. The "Needle Reactor," as Adams calls it, will be placed in a shallow shaft before its nuclear reactor is allowed to go critical. Quickly the temperature will rise to about 1,100° C. (2,012° F.), which is hot enough to melt most rock. Because of the insulation around the midsection, most of the heat will flow downward; soon the lower point will be surrounded by a puddle of lava. The needle reactor will gradually drop into this plastic stuff, and the lava will close over it and solidify.
( Read more... )
Some years ago, I kicked this around in some science newsgroups on Usenet. Unfortunately, I garbled Dr. Adams's middle name at the time. I apologize.
Anybody want to take the plunge?
To those interested in constructing probes to penetrate the ice of Europa's surface and investigate the (hypothetical) global ocean beneath, I recommend a study of the Meltmobile. (My word, not Adams's.)
To quote Time's 1964 article on the idea, which is where I heard about it:
Adams' crust piercer, which he patented and assigned to the AEC, is a high-temperature nuclear reactor designed to melt its way into rock. The reactor is 2 ft. to 3 ft. in diameter, and its active material (uranium oxide) is enclosed in a cylinder of beryllium oxide, which serves as a heat insulator. The lower point, mostly tungsten, is heavy, while the upper point, mostly beryllium, is light.
Puddle of Lava. The "Needle Reactor," as Adams calls it, will be placed in a shallow shaft before its nuclear reactor is allowed to go critical. Quickly the temperature will rise to about 1,100° C. (2,012° F.), which is hot enough to melt most rock. Because of the insulation around the midsection, most of the heat will flow downward; soon the lower point will be surrounded by a puddle of lava. The needle reactor will gradually drop into this plastic stuff, and the lava will close over it and solidify.
( Read more... )
Some years ago, I kicked this around in some science newsgroups on Usenet. Unfortunately, I garbled Dr. Adams's middle name at the time. I apologize.
Anybody want to take the plunge?
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