@inproceedings{BaaderKellerLehmannetal.2019, author = {Baader, Fabian and Keller, Denis and Lehmann, Raphael and Gerber, Lukas and Reiswich, Martin and Dachwald, Bernd and F{\"o}rstner, Roger}, title = {Operating melting probes for ice penetration under sublimation conditions and in reduced gravity on a sounding rocket}, series = {Proceedings of the 24th ESA Symposium on European Rocket and Balloon Programmes and related Research}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 24th ESA Symposium on European Rocket and Balloon Programmes and related Research}, issn = {0379-6566}, pages = {8 Seiten}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @article{JanThimoBauerBieleetal.2019, author = {Jan Thimo, Grundmann and Bauer, Waldemar and Biele, Jens and Boden, Ralf and Ceriotti, Matteo and Cordero, Federico and Dachwald, Bernd and Dumont, Etienne and Grimm, Christian D. and Hercik, David}, title = {Capabilities of Gossamer-1 derived small spacecraft solar sails carrying Mascot-derived nanolanders for in-situ surveying of NEAs}, series = {Acta Astronautica}, volume = {156}, journal = {Acta Astronautica}, number = {3}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0094-5765}, doi = {10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.03.019}, pages = {330 -- 362}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{GrundmannBauerBodenetal.2019, author = {Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Bauer, Waldemar and Boden, Ralf Christian and Ceriotti, Matteo and Cordero, Federico and Dachwald, Bernd and Dumont, Etienne and Grimm, Christian D. and Hercik, D. and Herique, A. and Ho, Tra-Mi and Jahnke, Rico and Kofman, Wlodek and Lange, Caroline and Lichtenheldt, Roy and McInnes, Colin R. and Mikschl, Tobias and Montenegro, Sergio and Moore, Iain and Pelivan, Ivanka and Peloni, Alessandro and Plettenmeier, Dirk and Quantius, Dominik and Reershemius, Siebo and Renger, Thomas and Riemann, Johannes and Rogez, Yves and Ruffer, Michael and Sasaki, Kaname and Schmitz, Nicole and Seboldt, Wolfgang and Seefeldt, Patric and Spietz, Peter and Spr{\"o}witz, Tom and Sznajder, Maciej and Toth, Norbert and Viavattene, Giulia and Wejmo, Elisabet and Wolff, Friederike and Ziach, Christian}, title = {Responsive exploration and asteroid characterization through integrated solar sail and lander development using small spacecraft technologies}, series = {IAA Planetary Defense Conference}, booktitle = {IAA Planetary Defense Conference}, year = {2019}, abstract = {In parallel to the evolution of the Planetary Defense Conference, the exploration of small solar system bodies has advanced from fast fly-bys on the sidelines of missions to the planets to the implementation of dedicated sample-return and in-situ analysis missions. Spacecraft of all sizes have landed, touch-and-go sampled, been gently beached, or impacted at hypervelocity on asteroid and comet surfaces. More have flown by close enough to image their surfaces in detail or sample their immediate environment, often as part of an extended or re-purposed mission. And finally, full-scale planetary defense experiment missions are in the making. Highly efficient low-thrust propulsion is increasingly applied beyond commercial use also in mainstream and flagship science missions, in combination with gravity assist propulsion. Another development in the same years is the growth of small spacecraft solutions, not in size but in numbers and individual capabilities. The on-going NASA OSIRIS-REx and JAXA HAYABUSA2 missions exemplify the trend as well as the upcoming NEA SCOUT mission or the landers MINERVA-II and MASCOT recently deployed on Ryugu. We outline likely as well as possible and efficient routes of continuation of all these developments towards a propellant-less and highly efficient class of spacecraft for small solar system body exploration: small spacecraft solar sails designed for carefree handling and equipped with carried landers and application modules, for all asteroid user communities -planetary science, planetary defence, and in-situ resource utilization. This projection builds on the experience gained in the development of deployable membrane structures leading up to the successful ground deployment test of a (20 m)² solar sail at DLR Cologne and in the 20 years since. It draws on the background of extensive trajectory optimization studies, the qualified technology of the DLR GOSSAMER-1 deployment demonstrator, and the MASCOT asteroid lander. These enable 'now-term' as well as near-term hardware solutions, and thus responsive fast-paced development. Mission types directly applicable to planetary defense include: single and Multiple NEA Rendezvous ((M)NR) for mitigation precursor, target monitoring and deflection follow-up tasks; sail-propelled head-on retrograde kinetic impactors (RKI) for mitigation; and deployable membrane based methods to modify the asteroid's properties or interact with it. The DLR-ESTEC GOSSAMER Roadmap initiated studies of missions uniquely feasible with solar sails such as Displaced L1 (DL1) space weather advance warning and monitoring and Solar Polar Orbiter (SPO) delivery which demonstrate the capability of near-term solar sails to achieve NEA rendezvous in any kind of orbit, from Earth-coorbital to extremely inclined and even retrograde orbits. For those mission types using separable payloads, such as SPO, (M)NR and RKI, design concepts can be derived from the separable Boom Sail Deployment Units characteristic of DLR GOSSAMER solar sail technology, nanolanders like MASCOT, or microlanders like the JAXA-DLR Jupiter Trojan Asteroid Lander for the OKEANOS mission which can shuttle from the sail to the asteroids visited and enable multiple NEA sample-return missions. These are an ideal match for solar sails in micro-spacecraft format whose launch configurations are compatible with ESPA and ASAP secondary payload platforms.}, language = {en} } @article{LyonsMikuckiGermanetal.2019, author = {Lyons, W. Berry and Mikucki, Jill A. and German, Laura A. and Welch, Kathleen A. and Welch, Susan A. and Gardener, Christopher B. and Tulaczyk, Slawek M. and Pettit, Erin C. and Kowalski, Julia and Dachwald, Bernd}, title = {The Geochemistry of Englacial Brine from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica}, series = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences}, journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {2169-8961}, doi = {10.1029/2018JG004411}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @incollection{DachwaldOhndorf2019, author = {Dachwald, Bernd and Ohndorf, Andreas}, title = {Global optimization of continuous-thrust trajectories using evolutionary neurocontrol}, series = {Modeling and Optimization in Space Engineering}, booktitle = {Modeling and Optimization in Space Engineering}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-030-10501-3}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-10501-3_2}, pages = {33 -- 57}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Searching optimal continuous-thrust trajectories is usually a difficult and time-consuming task. The solution quality of traditional optimal-control methods depends strongly on an adequate initial guess because the solution is typically close to the initial guess, which may be far from the (unknown) global optimum. Evolutionary neurocontrol attacks continuous-thrust optimization problems from the perspective of artificial intelligence and machine learning, combining artificial neural networks and evolutionary algorithms. This chapter describes the method and shows some example results for single- and multi-phase continuous-thrust trajectory optimization problems to assess its performance. Evolutionary neurocontrol can explore the trajectory search space more exhaustively than a human expert can do with traditional optimal-control methods. Especially for difficult problems, it usually finds solutions that are closer to the global optimum. Another fundamental advantage is that continuous-thrust trajectories can be optimized without an initial guess and without expert supervision.}, language = {en} } @article{HeinEubanksHibberdetal.2020, author = {Hein, Andreas M. and Eubanks, T. Marshall and Hibberd, Adam and Fries, Dan and Schneider, Jean and Lingam, Manasvi and Kennedy, Robert and Perakis, Nikolaos and Dachwald, Bernd and Kervella, Pierre}, title = {Interstellar Now! Missions to and sample returns from nearby interstellar objects}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, pages = {1 -- 8}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The recently discovered first high velocity hyperbolic objects passing through the Solar System, 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, have raised the question about near term missions to Interstellar Objects. In situ spacecraft exploration of these objects will allow the direct determination of both their structure and their chemical and isotopic composition, enabling an entirely new way of studying small bodies from outside our solar system. In this paper, we map various Interstellar Object classes to mission types, demonstrating that missions to a range of Interstellar Object classes are feasible, using existing or near-term technology. We describe flyby, rendezvous and sample return missions to interstellar objects, showing various ways to explore these bodies characterizing their surface, dynamics, structure and composition. Interstellar objects likely formed very far from the solar system in both time and space; their direct exploration will constrain their formation and history, situating them within the dynamical and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. These mission types also provide the opportunity to explore solar system bodies and perform measurements in the far outer solar system.}, language = {en} } @article{KezerashviliDachwald2021, author = {Kezerashvili, Roman Ya and Dachwald, Bernd}, title = {Preface: Solar sailing: Concepts, technology, and missions II}, series = {Advances in Space Research}, volume = {67}, journal = {Advances in Space Research}, number = {9}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0273-1177}, doi = {10.1016/j.asr.2021.01.037}, pages = {2559 -- 2560}, year = {2021}, language = {en} } @article{SpietzSproewitzSeefeldtetal.2021, author = {Spietz, Peter and Spr{\"o}witz, Tom and Seefeldt, Patric and Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Jahnke, Rico and Mikschl, Tobias and Mikulz, Eugen and Montenegro, Sergio and Reershemius, Siebo and Renger, Thomas and Ruffer, Michael and Sasaki, Kaname and Sznajder, Maciej and T{\´o}th, Norbert and Ceriotti, Matteo and Dachwald, Bernd and Macdonald, Malcolm and McInnes, Colin and Seboldt, Wolfgang and Quantius, Dominik and Bauer, Waldemar and Wiedemann, Carsten and Grimm, Christian D. and Hercik, David and Ho, Tra-Mi and Lange, Caroline and Schmitz, Nicole}, title = {Paths not taken - The Gossamer roadmap's other options}, series = {Advances in Space Research}, volume = {67}, journal = {Advances in Space Research}, number = {9}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0273-1177}, doi = {10.1016/j.asr.2021.01.044}, pages = {2912 -- 2956}, year = {2021}, language = {en} } @article{HeiligersSchoutetensDachwald2021, author = {Heiligers, Jeannette and Schoutetens, Frederic and Dachwald, Bernd}, title = {Photon-sail equilibria in the alpha centauri system}, series = {Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics}, volume = {44}, journal = {Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics}, number = {5}, issn = {1533-3884}, doi = {10.2514/1.G005446}, pages = {1053 -- 1061}, year = {2021}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{GrundmannBorellaCeriottietal.2021, author = {Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Borella, Laura and Ceriotti, Matteo and Chand, Suditi and Cordero, Federico and Dachwald, Bernd and Fexer, Sebastian and Grimm, Christian D. and Hendrikse, Jeffrey and Herč{\´i}k, David and Herique, Alain and Hillebrandt, Martin and Ho, Tra-Mi and Kesseler, Lars and Laabs, Martin and Lange, Caroline and Lange, Michael and Lichtenheldt, Roy and McInnes, Colin R. and Moore, Iain and Peloni, Alessandro and Plettenmeier, Dirk and Quantius, Dominik and Seefeldt, Patric and Venditti, Flaviane c. F. and Vergaaij, Merel and Viavattene, Giulia and Virkki, Anne K. and Zander, Martin}, title = {More bucks for the bang: new space solutions, impact tourism and one unique science \& engineering opportunity at T-6 months and counting}, series = {7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference}, booktitle = {7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference}, year = {2021}, abstract = {For now, the Planetary Defense Conference Exercise 2021's incoming fictitious(!), asteroid, 2021 PDC, seems headed for impact on October 20th, 2021, exactly 6 months after its discovery. Today (April 26th, 2021), the impact probability is 5\%, in a steep rise from 1 in 2500 upon discovery six days ago. We all know how these things end. Or do we? Unless somebody kicked off another headline-grabbing media scare or wants to keep civil defense very idle very soon, chances are that it will hit (note: this is an exercise!). Taking stock, it is barely 6 months to impact, a steadily rising likelihood that it will actually happen, and a huge uncertainty of possible impact energies: First estimates range from 1.2 MtTNT to 13 GtTNT, and this is not even the worst-worst case: a 700 m diameter massive NiFe asteroid (covered by a thin veneer of Ryugu-black rubble to match size and brightness), would come in at 70 GtTNT. In down to Earth terms, this could be all between smashing fireworks over some remote area of the globe and a 7.5 km crater downtown somewhere. Considering the deliberate and sedate ways of development of interplanetary missions it seems we can only stand and stare until we know well enough where to tell people to pack up all that can be moved at all and save themselves. But then, it could just as well be a smaller bright rock. The best estimate is 120 m diameter from optical observation alone, by 13\% standard albedo. NASA's upcoming DART mission to binary asteroid (65803) Didymos is designed to hit such a small target, its moonlet Dimorphos. The Deep Impact mission's impactor in 2005 successfully guided itself to the brightest spot on comet 9P/Tempel 1, a relatively small feature on the 6 km nucleus. And 'space' has changed: By the end of this decade, one satellite communication network plans to have launched over 11000 satellites at a pace of 60 per launch every other week. This level of series production is comparable in numbers to the most prolific commercial airliners. Launch vehicle production has not simply increased correspondingly - they can be reused, although in a trade for performance. Optical and radio astronomy as well as planetary radar have made great strides in the past decade, and so has the design and production capability for everyday 'high-tech' products. 60 years ago, spaceflight was invented from scratch within two years, and there are recent examples of fast-paced space projects as well as a drive towards 'responsive space'. It seems it is not quite yet time to abandon all hope. We present what could be done and what is too close to call once thinking is shoved out of the box by a clear and present danger, to show where a little more preparedness or routine would come in handy - or become decisive. And if we fail, let's stand and stare safely and well instrumented anywhere on Earth together in the greatest adventure of science.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SchoutetensDachwaldHeiligers2021, author = {Schoutetens, Frederic and Dachwald, Bernd and Heiligers, Jeannette}, title = {Optimisation of photon-sail trajectories in the alpha-centauri system using evolutionary neurocontrol}, series = {8th ICATT 2021}, booktitle = {8th ICATT 2021}, pages = {1 -- 15}, year = {2021}, abstract = {With the increased interest for interstellar exploration after the discovery of exoplanets and the proposal by Breakthrough Starshot, this paper investigates the optimisation of photon-sail trajectories in Alpha Centauri. The prime objective is to find the optimal steering strategy for a photonic sail to get captured around one of the stars after a minimum-time transfer from Earth. By extending the idea of the Breakthrough Starshot project with a deceleration phase upon arrival, the mission's scientific yield will be increased. As a secondary objective, transfer trajectories between the stars and orbit-raising manoeuvres to explore the habitable zones of the stars are investigated. All trajectories are optimised for minimum time of flight using the trajectory optimisation software InTrance. Depending on the sail technology, interstellar travel times of 77.6-18,790 years can be achieved, which presents an average improvement of 30\% with respect to previous work. Still, significant technological development is required to reach and be captured in the Alpha-Centauri system in less than a century. Therefore, a fly-through mission arguably remains the only option for a first exploratory mission to Alpha Centauri, but the enticing results obtained in this work provide perspective for future long-residence missions to our closest neighbouring star system.}, language = {en} } @article{SeefeldtDachwald2021, author = {Seefeldt, Patric and Dachwald, Bernd}, title = {Temperature increase on folded solar sail membranes}, series = {Advances in Space Research}, volume = {67}, journal = {Advances in Space Research}, number = {9}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0273-1177}, doi = {10.1016/j.asr.2020.09.026}, pages = {2688 -- 2695}, year = {2021}, language = {en} } @article{GermanMikuckiWelchetal.2021, author = {German, Laura and Mikucki, Jill A. and Welch, Susan A. and Welch, Kathleen A. and Lutton, Anthony and Dachwald, Bernd and Kowalski, Julia and Heinen, Dirk and Feldmann, Marco and Francke, Gero and Espe, Clemens and Lyons, W. Berry}, title = {Validation of sampling antarctic subglacial hypersaline waters with an electrothermal ice melting probe (IceMole) for environmental analytical geochemistry}, series = {International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry}, volume = {101}, journal = {International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry}, number = {15}, publisher = {Taylor \& Francis}, address = {London}, issn = {0306-7319}, doi = {10.1080/03067319.2019.1704750}, pages = {2654 -- 2667}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Geochemical characterisation of hypersaline waters is difficult as high concentrations of salts hinder the analysis of constituents at low concentrations, such as trace metals, and the collection of samples for trace metal analysis in natural waters can be easily contaminated. This is particularly the case if samples are collected by non-conventional techniques such as those required for aquatic subglacial environments. In this paper we present the first analysis of a subglacial brine from Taylor Valley, (~ 78°S), Antarctica for the trace metals: Ba, Co, Mo, Rb, Sr, V, and U. Samples were collected englacially using an electrothermal melting probe called the IceMole. This probe uses differential heating of a copper head as well as the probe's sidewalls and an ice screw at the melting head to move through glacier ice. Detailed blanks, meltwater, and subglacial brine samples were collected to evaluate the impact of the IceMole and the borehole pump, the melting and collection process, filtration, and storage on the geochemistry of the samples collected by this device. Comparisons between melt water profiles through the glacier ice and blank analysis, with published studies on ice geochemistry, suggest the potential for minor contributions of some species Rb, As, Co, Mn, Ni, NH4+, and NO2-+NO3- from the IceMole. The ability to conduct detailed chemical analyses of subglacial fluids collected with melting probes is critical for the future exploration of the hundreds of deep subglacial lakes in Antarctica.}, language = {en} } @article{HeinEubanksLingametal.2022, author = {Hein, Andreas M. and Eubanks, T. Marshall and Lingam, Manasvi and Hibberd, Adam and Fries, Dan and Schneider, Jean and Kervella, Pierre and Kennedy, Robert and Perakis, Nikolaos and Dachwald, Bernd}, title = {Interstellar now! Missions to explore nearby interstellar objects}, series = {Advances in Space Research}, volume = {69}, journal = {Advances in Space Research}, number = {1}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0273-1177}, doi = {10.1016/j.asr.2021.06.052}, pages = {402 -- 414}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The recently discovered first hyperbolic objects passing through the Solar System, 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, have raised the question about near term missions to Interstellar Objects. In situ spacecraft exploration of these objects will allow the direct determination of both their structure and their chemical and isotopic composition, enabling an entirely new way of studying small bodies from outside our solar system. In this paper, we map various Interstellar Object classes to mission types, demonstrating that missions to a range of Interstellar Object classes are feasible, using existing or near-term technology. We describe flyby, rendezvous and sample return missions to interstellar objects, showing various ways to explore these bodies characterizing their surface, dynamics, structure and composition. Their direct exploration will constrain their formation and history, situating them within the dynamical and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. These mission types also provide the opportunity to explore solar system bodies and perform measurements in the far outer solar system.}, language = {en} } @misc{FeldmannFranckeEspeetal.2022, author = {Feldmann, Marco and Francke, Gero and Espe, Clemes and Chen, Qian and Baader, Fabian and Boxberg, Marc S. and Sustrate, Anna-Marie and Kowalski, Julia and Dachwald, Bernd}, title = {Performance data of an ice-melting probe from field tests in two different ice environments}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.6094866}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This dataset was acquired at field tests of the steerable ice-melting probe "EnEx-IceMole" (Dachwald et al., 2014). A field test in summer 2014 was used to test the melting probe's system, before the probe was shipped to Antarctica, where, in international cooperation with the MIDGE project, the objective of a sampling mission in the southern hemisphere summer 2014/2015 was to return a clean englacial sample from the subglacial brine reservoir supplying the Blood Falls at Taylor Glacier (Badgeley et al., 2017, German et al., 2021). The standardized log-files generated by the IceMole during melting operation include more than 100 operational parameters, housekeeping information, and error states, which are reported to the base station in intervals of 4 s. Occasional packet loss in data transmission resulted in a sparse number of increased sampling intervals, which where compensated for by linear interpolation during post processing. The presented dataset is based on a subset of this data: The penetration distance is calculated based on the ice screw drive encoder signal, providing the rate of rotation, and the screw's thread pitch. The melting speed is calculated from the same data, assuming the rate of rotation to be constant over one sampling interval. The contact force is calculated from the longitudinal screw force, which es measured by strain gauges. The used heating power is calculated from binary states of all heating elements, which can only be either switched on or off. Temperatures are measured at each heating element and averaged for three zones (melting head, side-wall heaters and back-plate heaters).}, language = {en} } @incollection{DachwaldUlamecKowalskietal.2023, author = {Dachwald, Bernd and Ulamec, Stephan and Kowalski, Julia and Boxberg, Marc S. and Baader, Fabian and Biele, Jens and K{\"o}mle, Norbert}, title = {Ice melting probes}, series = {Handbook of Space Resources}, booktitle = {Handbook of Space Resources}, editor = {Badescu, Viorel and Zacny, Kris and Bar-Cohen, Yoseph}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-030-97912-6 (Print)}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-97913-3_29}, pages = {955 -- 996}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The exploration of icy environments in the solar system, such as the poles of Mars and the icy moons (a.k.a. ocean worlds), is a key aspect for understanding their astrobiological potential as well as for extraterrestrial resource inspection. On these worlds, ice melting probes are considered to be well suited for the robotic clean execution of such missions. In this chapter, we describe ice melting probes and their applications, the physics of ice melting and how the melting behavior can be modeled and simulated numerically, the challenges for ice melting, and the required key technologies to deal with those challenges. We also give an overview of existing ice melting probes and report some results and lessons learned from laboratory and field tests.}, language = {en} } @article{BaaderBoxbergChenetal.2023, author = {Baader, Fabian and Boxberg, Marc S. and Chen, Qian and F{\"o}rstner, Roger and Kowalski, Julia and Dachwald, Bernd}, title = {Field-test performance of an ice-melting probe in a terrestrial analogue environment}, series = {Icarus}, journal = {Icarus}, number = {409}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, doi = {10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115852}, pages = {Artikel 115852}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Melting probes are a proven tool for the exploration of thick ice layers and clean sampling of subglacial water on Earth. Their compact size and ease of operation also make them a key technology for the future exploration of icy moons in our Solar System, most prominently Europa and Enceladus. For both mission planning and hardware engineering, metrics such as efficiency and expected performance in terms of achievable speed, power requirements, and necessary heating power have to be known. Theoretical studies aim at describing thermal losses on the one hand, while laboratory experiments and field tests allow an empirical investigation of the true performance on the other hand. To investigate the practical value of a performance model for the operational performance in extraterrestrial environments, we first contrast measured data from terrestrial field tests on temperate and polythermal glaciers with results from basic heat loss models and a melt trajectory model. For this purpose, we propose conventions for the determination of two different efficiencies that can be applied to both measured data and models. One definition of efficiency is related to the melting head only, while the other definition considers the melting probe as a whole. We also present methods to combine several sources of heat loss for probes with a circular cross-section, and to translate the geometry of probes with a non-circular cross-section to analyse them in the same way. The models were selected in a way that minimizes the need to make assumptions about unknown parameters of the probe or the ice environment. The results indicate that currently used models do not yet reliably reproduce the performance of a probe under realistic conditions. Melting velocities and efficiencies are constantly overestimated by 15 to 50 \% in the models, but qualitatively agree with the field test data. Hence, losses are observed, that are not yet covered and quantified by the available loss models. We find that the deviation increases with decreasing ice temperature. We suspect that this mismatch is mainly due to the too restrictive idealization of the probe model and the fact that the probe was not operated in an efficiency-optimized manner during the field tests. With respect to space mission engineering, we find that performance and efficiency models must be used with caution in unknown ice environments, as various ice parameters have a significant effect on the melting process. Some of these are difficult to estimate from afar.}, language = {en} } @article{MikuckiSchulerDigeletal.2023, author = {Mikucki, Jill Ann and Schuler, C. G. and Digel, Ilya and Kowalski, Julia and Tuttle, M. J. and Chua, Michelle and Davis, R. and Purcell, Alicia and Ghosh, D. and Francke, G. and Feldmann, M. and Espe, C. and Heinen, Dirk and Dachwald, Bernd and Clemens, Joachim and Lyons, W. B. and Tulaczyk, S.}, title = {Field-Based planetary protection operations for melt probes: validation of clean access into the blood falls, antarctica, englacial ecosystem}, series = {Astrobiology}, volume = {23}, journal = {Astrobiology}, number = {11}, publisher = {Liebert}, address = {New York, NY}, issn = {1557-8070 (online)}, doi = {10.1089/ast.2021.0102}, pages = {1165 -- 1178}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Subglacial environments on Earth offer important analogs to Ocean World targets in our solar system. These unique microbial ecosystems remain understudied due to the challenges of access through thick glacial ice (tens to hundreds of meters). Additionally, sub-ice collections must be conducted in a clean manner to ensure sample integrity for downstream microbiological and geochemical analyses. We describe the field-based cleaning of a melt probe that was used to collect brine samples from within a glacier conduit at Blood Falls, Antarctica, for geomicrobiological studies. We used a thermoelectric melting probe called the IceMole that was designed to be minimally invasive in that the logistical requirements in support of drilling operations were small and the probe could be cleaned, even in a remote field setting, so as to minimize potential contamination. In our study, the exterior bioburden on the IceMole was reduced to levels measured in most clean rooms, and below that of the ice surrounding our sampling target. Potential microbial contaminants were identified during the cleaning process; however, very few were detected in the final englacial sample collected with the IceMole and were present in extremely low abundances (∼0.063\% of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences). This cleaning protocol can help minimize contamination when working in remote field locations, support microbiological sampling of terrestrial subglacial environments using melting probes, and help inform planetary protection challenges for Ocean World analog mission concepts.}, language = {en} }