The PIs propose to design and build a new mobile drilling platform for use on Antarctic ice sheets. This new Rapid Access Ice Drilling system (RAID) will enable rapid access to deep ice (up to 3300 m depth), followed by coring of the ice-sheet bed interface and bedrock substrate below. RAID will provide a new tool to obtain in situ measurements as well as samples of ice, glacial bed, and rock for interdisciplinary studies. RAID will be mobile, logistically autonomous, and capable of drilling to deep ice within a few days. Once a borehole is created, down-hole logging, drilling of short ice and rock cores, and other sampling can follow. Holes can be kept open for several years to facilitate re-entry. The drill is being designed so that several holes may be completed per field season. Once built, the drilling system will be established as an NSF-sponsored facility. RAID will provide an interdisciplinary capability to study lithospheric composition, heat flow, ice-sheet dynamics, climate history and atmospheric greenhouse gas composition over the past 1.5 million years, paleothermometry, extremophile organisms, and particle physics.
Broader impacts: RAID will enable scientists to address critical questions about the deep interface between the Antarctic ice sheets and the substrate below and address many of the unknowns associated with general stability of the Antarctic ice sheets in the face of changing climate. Once developed, RAID will help train students in scientific drilling operations.
The purpose of this project was to design a new mobile drilling platform for use on the ice sheets of Antarctica. Our goal is to gain rapid access to deep ice (drilling penetration up to 3300 m depth), followed by coring of the ice-sheet bed interface and bedrock substrate below. This novel drilling technology will provide an entirely new way to obtain in situ measurements and samples of ice, glacial bed, and rock for interdisciplinary studies in geology, glaciology, paleoclimate, microbiology, and astrophysics. The new drilling platform will be mobile, logistically autonomous, and capable of drilling to deep ice within a few days. Once a borehole is created, down-hole logging, drilling of short ice and rock cores, and other sampling will follow, and the hole will be kept open for several years to facilitate re-entry. Such a drilling platform will enable a drilling crew to be on-site, drilled, cored and moved to a new site within a few weeks, so that several holes may be completed per field season in Antarctica. It will be deployable in both East and West Antarctica. Once built, the drilling system will be established as an NSF-sponsored facility operated jointly by the University of Minnesota-Duluth and the Ice Drilling Program Office. This new Rapid Access Ice Drilling system (RAID), will provide an interdisciplinary capability to study lithospheric composition, heat flow, ice-sheet dynamics, climate history and atmospheric greenhouse gas composition over the past 1.5 million years, paleothermometry, extremophile organisms, and particle physics. Based on a competitive bidding process, a search for an engineering design firm was conducted by the University of Minnesota (UM) in late 2012 and early 2013. In response to a Request for Proposals issued by UM, a successful proposal was submitted by DOSECC Exploration Services, LLP, based in Salt Lake City (hereafter DES). DES has significant past experience with scientific drilling, including design and operation of one-of-a-kind drilling rigs in remote land- and lake-based systems. A design contract was issued to DES in April 2013, with a goal of completing design work by the end of 2013. Intensive design work ensued through most of 2013, bringing together the RAID science team (J. Goodge, J. Severinghaus, G. Clow, USGS; J. Rashid, PMP; A. Law, Atlas Copco), DES, Matrix Drilling Products, American Diamond Tool, and QD Tech (the latter acting as principal subcontractors to DES). The design process began with an initial meeting in Salt Lake City to establish scope of the project, followed by periodic group meetings in Salt Lake City and Duluth, as well as weekly videoconferences with the design team. Meeting minutes and design revisions are archived by DES. Major milestones set for June, September and December were completed on schedule. The final result of the design effort is a Milestone IV report completed by DES, attached as a supporting document. It includes an overview of the drilling system, outline of the major subsystems, specifications for components, schematic drawings of all key subsystem components, and a budget for construction. Detailed technical drawings of the RAID components are available from the PIs.
