Bold opening: The below-the-ice frontier on Earth mirrors and informs how we might probe icy worlds beyond our planet, and it’s happening right now in Antarctica.
But here’s where it gets controversial: the same technology and methods we use to study a melting glacier could determine the fate of future space missions to Europa, Enceladus, and other frozen moons.
Crossovers In Ice Planet Exploration — Earth, Europa, And Beyond — Astrobiology
Keith’s note: On February 11, 2026, NOVA PBS host and NewsHour correspondent Miles O’Brien broadcast live from a ship in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, where the Thwaites glacier — often nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier” — is deteriorating at a troubling pace. A research team achieved a remarkable feat by boring through 3,000 feet of ice using a hot-water drill, but the operation quickly devolved into a wrenching struggle against nature. During the broadcast, Miles spoke with Peter Davis of the British Antarctic Survey and with David Holland of New York University. At 23:55 in the video, Miles asked Peter Davis an astrobiology-related question about Europa and Enceladus, which I posed in the online chat.
Miles O’Brien: Keith Cowing, my space friend, wonders how Antarctica science can inform how we conduct astrobiology missions to icy worlds like Europa and Enceladus. There’s a lot to unpack here. I’ve thought about it extensively—there’s a project involving an ice-penetrating radar using long-wavelength signals to peer beneath the ice and map the terrain below. That radar helps answer questions about roughness, slope, and water content—all of which influence how quickly Thwaites might fail. Importantly, that same radar concept is slated for use in a Europa mission, which aims to perform a similar sub-ice survey. So there’s a direct, practical link. Yet I keep returning to the broader question of how space missions operate.
Peter Davis: Absolutely. I see many overlaps. In hot-water drilling, we distinguish between what we call “clean drilling” and “dirty drilling.” Dirty drilling doesn’t mean dirty in a moral sense; it simply means the water isn’t biologically pristine. For projects that drill into subglacial lakes—lakes hidden under kilometers of ice—we must drill cleanly to prevent introducing Earth microbes or viruses into those lakes. The same logic applies to Europa: any activity that burrows into or beneath the ice must avoid contaminating the extraterrestrial environment. So there’s a strong crossover there.
There’s also a technological bridge. We’ve begun using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that can be deployed through bore holes. They’re tethered to the surface, which is different from the more autonomous systems you’d use at an ice front, but they provide a remarkable view of the area around a single bore hole.
I suspect the instrumentation developed for bore-hole exploration has a lot in common with what we’d eventually send to a planet like Europa—scaled down to a few meters in length for human-made prototypes, and then adapted for spaceflight. Space agencies might borrow, adapt, and shrink many of these designs for safe, contained operation in another world. [laughter]
Miles O’Brien: NASA, if you’re listening, this is a prime area to explore. I’ve spent time with NASA in Arctic environments like Devon Island, and there’s real value in understanding how to operate in extreme conditions. If you’re truly aiming to pierce thick ice on icy moons, you’ll need to solve the challenge of drilling through ice that could be miles thick without bringing Earth-based contamination with you. What alternative methods could work? A heated probe that gradually melts its way through the ice, perhaps, with refreezing behind it? A power source beyond mere surface wiring—maybe nuclear-powered systems—raises obvious policy and environmental considerations, especially in Antarctica due to the Antarctic Treaty.
Peter Davis: Yes, there are promising directions. A heated probe that slowly progresses through the ice, leaving a trail that refreezes behind, is one concept. It’s unlikely you’d bring a data line all the way as you go; instead, you’d rely on autonomous data collection and wireless transmission when possible. The broader point is that there will be a family of approaches, and while the exact hardware might not mirror space hardware one-to-one, the foundational ideas—the need for clean operation, for robust bore-hole sensing, and for remotely deployed instrumentation—will carry over.
Miles O’Brien: This planet remains my favorite, and learning here can illuminate our approach to other worlds. There’s still a vast amount to discover.
More information
Miles O’Brien Substack: https://milesobrien.substack.com/
PBS Newshour coverage: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/tag/antarctica
