Anybody knows whats going on with the Vostok lake exploration?

Question

I cant find any recent article, but according to old ones it looks like we should have already reached the actual waters of the lake and therefore maybe we have interesting findings already?

Answer 1

I think they had to stop because drilling through would lead to contamination in itself.

Answer 2

No, it seems like the situation is still static since scientists don't want to contaminate the 13,000 feet deep lake that could contain water as old as 2 million years. If so it could tell us a lot about life on the Earth back then. The problem is that any drilling method would need a hole pressurized with an antifreeze like kerosene or oil and that would pollute the lake, possibly killing any life forms living there.

Wikipedia is usually very current and the scientists involved in the project would be quite likely to boast of their achievement in Wikipedia if they were able to reach the lake yet.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_Lake#Recent_research
"It is 250 km long by 50 km wide at its widest point, thus similar in size to Lake Ontario, and is divided into two deep basins by a ridge. The water over the ridge is about 200 m (650 feet) deep, compared to roughly 400 m (1,300 feet) deep in the northern basin and 800 m (2,600 feet) deep in the southern. Lake Vostok covers an area of 15,690 km² (6,058 mi²). It has an estimated volume of 5400 km³ (1,300 cubic miles) and consists of fresh water. The average depth is 344 m. In May 2005 an island was found in the center of the lake...

In January 2006, Robin Bell and Michael Studinger, Geophysical researchers from Columbia University, announced in Geophysical Research Letters the discovery of two smaller lakes under the icecap, named 90 Degrees East and Sovetskaya.

It is also suspected that the Antarctic subglacial lakes may be connected by a network of subterranean rivers. Glaciologists Duncan Wingham (University College, London) and Martin Siegert (University of Bristol, now University of Edinburgh) published in Nature in 2006 that many of the subglacial lakes of Antarctica are at least temporarily interconnected. Obviously because of varying water pressure in individual lakes, large, sub-surface rivers may suddenly form and then force large amounts of water through the solid ice.

To probe the waters of Lake Vostok for life without contamination, plans were initiated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to start with a melter probe- the so-called "cryobot" - which melts down through the ice over Lake Vostok, unspooling a communications and power cable as it goes. The cryobot carries with it a small submersible, called a "hydrobot", which is deployed when the cryobot has melted to the ice-water interface. The hydrobot then swims off and "looks for life" with a camera and other instruments."

Last year I read an article in Popular Science that the US was objecting to the Russian plan to drill down to the lake using an oil filled drilling pipe. It has to be filled to keep the hole open, but oil would contaminate the lake.

This article from 2005 says that the British want to send a robot down to the lake. But, to avoid contamination they want to use hot pressurized water, the problem is that lake Vostok is too deep for that to work: http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/news/2005-2/052305westantarctic.shtml

This article dates from Jan 2003 and doesn't mention any recent work on trying to get to the lake: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V61-47BX9V7-1&_user=10&_coverDate=01%2F10%2F2003&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=84b7055433238f8610dbee5e4cda14c7

NASA plans on sending down an ice melting robot in preparation for the Europa mission, but this is form Jan 2002: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2002/release_2002_6.html

According to this BBC report from Oct 2000 they are just short of the lake, but their drill hole has 50 tons of kerosene in it so they don't want to continue or it might pollute the lake: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/vostok.shtml

NASA's latest satellite images dates from Nov 1999: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a000900/a000996/index.html

Short article on why to explore the lake, dating from Dec 1999, ancient microbes: http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast10dec99_2.htm

Currently the best way to explore the lake would be to use a robotic melting probe that would drill down and un-spool a cable (the robot is currently being tested in Austin Texas). The problem with this is that the best power and heat source would be nuclear, unless they use a very long electrical extension cord; the radiation could contaminate the lake as well. Currently science is stuck on how to continue.

Answer 3

THE EASIEST ANSWER IS THAT THE RUSSIANS RAN OUT OF MONEY TO CONTINUE WITH THE PROJECT.tHEY WERE USING A HEATED DRILL AND AS THE DRILL WENT DEEPER THE WATER AT THE TOP WOULD FREEZ PREVENTING ANY CONTIAMINATION FROM ENTERING THE BORE HOLE.