@article{KowalskiLinderZierkeetal.2016,
  author    = {Kowalski, Julia and Linder, Peter and Zierke, S. and Wulfen, B. van and Clemens, J. and Konstantinidis, K. and Ameres, G. and Hoffmann, R. and Mikucki, J. and Tulaczyk, S. and Funke, O. and Blandfort, D. and Espe, Clemens and Feldmann, Marco and Francke, Gero and Hiecker, S. and Plescher, Engelbert and Sch{\"o}ngarth, Sarah and Dachwald, Bernd and Digel, Ilya and Artmann, Gerhard and Eliseev, D. and Heinen, D. and Scholz, F. and Wiebusch, C. and Macht, S. and Bestmann, U. and Reineking, T. and Zetzsche, C. and Schill, K. and F{\"o}rstner, R. and Niedermeier, H. and Szumski, A. and Eissfeller, B. and Naumann, U. and Helbing, K.},
  title     = {Navigation technology for exploration of glacier ice with maneuverable melting probes},
  series = {Cold Regions Science and Technology},
  journal   = {Cold Regions Science and Technology},
  number    = {123},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0165-232X},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.coldregions.2015.11.006},
  pages     = {53 -- 70},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {The Saturnian moon Enceladus with its extensive water bodies underneath a thick ice sheet cover is a potential candidate for extraterrestrial life. Direct exploration of such extraterrestrial aquatic ecosystems requires advanced access and sampling technologies with a high level of autonomy. A new technological approach has been developed as part of the collaborative research project Enceladus Explorer (EnEx). The concept is based upon a minimally invasive melting probe called the IceMole. The force-regulated, heater-controlled IceMole is able to travel along a curved trajectory as well as upwards. Hence, it allows maneuvers which may be necessary for obstacle avoidance or target selection. Maneuverability, however, necessitates a sophisticated on-board navigation system capable of autonomous operations. The development of such a navigational system has been the focal part of the EnEx project. The original IceMole has been further developed to include relative positioning based on in-ice attitude determination, acoustic positioning, ultrasonic obstacle and target detection integrated through a high-level sensor fusion. This paper describes the EnEx technology and discusses implications for an actual extraterrestrial mission concept.},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{DupratDachwaldHilchenbachetal.2013,
  author    = {Duprat, J. and Dachwald, Bernd and Hilchenbach, M. and Engrand, Cecile and Espe, C. and Feldmann, Marco and Francke, Gero and G{\"o}r{\"o}g, Mark and L{\"u}sing, N. and Langenhorst, Falko},
  title     = {The MARVIN project: a micrometeorite harvester in Antarctic snow},
  series = {44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference},
  booktitle = {44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {MARVIN is an automated drilling and melting probe dedicated to collect pristine interplanetary dust particles (micrometeorites) from central Antarctica snow.},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{DachwaldMikuckiTulaczyketal.2012,
  author    = {Dachwald, Bernd and Mikucki, Jill A. and Tulaczyk, Slawek and Digel, Ilya and Feldmann, Marco and Espe, Clemens and Plescher, Engelbert and Xu, Changsheng},
  title     = {IceMole - a maneuverable probe for clean in-situ analysis and sampling of subsurface ice and subglacial aquatic ecosystems : extended abstract / SCAR Open Science Conference 2012, Session 29: Advancing Clean Technologies for Exploration of Glacial Aquatic Ecosystems},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {The "IceMole" is a novel maneuverable subsurface ice probe for clean in-situ analysis and sampling of subsurface ice and subglacial water/brine. It is developed and build at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences' Astronautical Laboratory. A first prototype was successfully tested on the Swiss Morteratsch glacier in 2010. Clean sampling is achieved with a hollow ice screw (as it is used in mountaineering) at the tip of the probe. Maneuverability is achieved with a differentially heated melting head. Funded by the German Space Agency (DLR), a consortium led by FH Aachen currently develops a much more advanced IceMole probe, which includes a sophisticated system for obstacle avoidance, target detection, and navigation in the ice. We intend to use this probe for taking clean samples of subglacial brine at the Blood Falls (McMurdo Dry Valleys, East Antarctica) for chemical and microbiological analysis. In our conference contribution, we 1) describe the IceMole design, 2) report the results of the field tests of the first prototype on the Morteratsch glacier, 3) discuss the probe's potential for the clean in-situ analysis and sampling of subsurface ice and subglacial liquids, and 4) outline the way ahead in the development of this technology.},
  subject      = {Eisschicht},
  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, Marco 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}
}
@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}
}
@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}
}
@inproceedings{DachwaldXuFeldmannetal.2011,
  author    = {Dachwald, Bernd and Xu, Changsheng and Feldmann, Marco and Plescher, Engelbert},
  title     = {IceMole : Development of a novel subsurface ice probe and testing of the first prototype on the Morteratsch Glacier},
  series = {EGU General Assembly 2011 Vienna | Austria | 03 - 08 April 2011},
  booktitle = {EGU General Assembly 2011 Vienna | Austria | 03 - 08 April 2011},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {We present the novel concept of a combined drilling and melting probe for subsurface ice research. This probe, named "IceMole", is currently developed, built, and tested at the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences' Astronautical Laboratory. Here, we describe its first prototype design and report the results of its field tests on the Swiss Morteratsch glacier. Although the IceMole design is currently adapted to terrestrial glaciers and ice shields, it may later be modified for the subsurface in-situ investigation of extraterrestrial ice, e.g., on Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. If life exists on those bodies, it may be present in the ice (as life can also be found in the deep ice of Earth).},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{DachwaldFeldmannEspeetal.2012,
  author    = {Dachwald, Bernd and Feldmann, Marco and Espe, Clemens and Plescher, Engelbert and Konstantinidis, K. and Forstner, R.},
  title     = {Enceladus explorer - A maneuverable subsurface probe for autonomous navigation through deep ice},
  series = {63rd International Astronautical Congress 2012, IAC 2012; Naples; Italy; 1 October 2012 through 5 October 2012. (Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC ; 3)},
  booktitle = {63rd International Astronautical Congress 2012, IAC 2012; Naples; Italy; 1 October 2012 through 5 October 2012. (Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC ; 3)},
  publisher = {Curran},
  address   = {Red Hook, NY},
  organization    = {International Astronautical Congress <63, 2012, Napoli>},
  isbn      = {978-1-62276-979-7},
  pages     = {1756 -- 1766},
  year      = {2012},
  language  = {en}
}