Search for life outside Earth has driven a bunch of scientists and engineers to Mexico for a NASA robotic probe.
If the experiment at the Mexican sinkhole goes as planned, the next round of test would take place at Lake Bonney in Antarctica, where conditions are quite similar to Europa, Jupiter’s moon which is believed to have an underground ocean.
As they prepare for the test in Mexico, the sinkhole at El Zacaton in central Mexican state of Tamaulipas, itself would be of major interest to the researchers. Scientists don’t have an idea about its depth and some of them feel the vertical cave could be deep enough to swallow three Chrysler Buildings!
The other main target of the study would be to find out if there is any life form at the bottom of the sinkhole.
This is the most ambitious test in NASA’s Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer, or DEPTHX, program and researchers are using an unmanned submersible, which can navigate in the water without tethers.
The scientists are confident that the tests would go well and David Wettergreen of the Carnegie Mellon University said
It’s an ambitious program, but the vehicle performed well in two earlier field tests.
