The IceMole cometh, and burrows without getting stuck

Nature : Since the 1960s, probes with heated tips have been used to bore through ice, but they have their problems and limitations: Dirt and sediment would often build up at the head of the probe and impede the transfer of heat, and most of the probes could only move downward through layers of ice. After two years of work, Bernd Dachwald, of Aachen University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and colleagues have developed IceMole, a new type of ice-melting probe that is capable of pulling itself through ice layers—not only downward but also horizontally and upward. A 6-cm screw at its head allows the probe to keep in contact with the ice it is trying to melt. The probe easily penetrates dirt and should also be able to function where the ice is in a near vacuum. A French team has already expressed interest in using the probe to search for micrometeorites in ice; it could prove useful for everything from sampling Antarctic subglacial lakes to searching for indications of subsurface water on icy outer moons such as Europa.