Collaborative Research: Phase 2 Development of A Rapid Access Ice Drilling (RAID) Platform for Research in Antarctica

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The PIs will design and build a new rapid access ice drill (RAID) for use in Antarctica. This drill will have the ability to rapidly drill through ice up to 3300 m thick and then collect samples of the ice, ice-sheet bed interface, and bedrock substrate below. This drilling technology will provide a new way to obtain in situ measurements and samples for interdisciplinary studies in geology, glaciology, paleoclimatology, microbiology, and astrophysics. The RAID drilling platform will give the scientific community access to records of geologic and climatic change on a variety of timescales, from the billion-year rock record to thousand-year ice and climate histories. Successful development of the RAID system will provide a research tool that is currently unavailable. Development of this platform will enable scientists to address critical questions about the deep interface between the Antarctic ice sheets and the substrate below. Development of RAID will provide a way to address many of the unknowns associated with general stability of the Antarctic ice sheets in the face of changing climate and sea level rise.The scientific rationale for RAID was reviewed in a previous proposal (Goodge 1242027). The PIs were granted ?Phase I? funding to develop a more detailed conceptual design for the RAID drill that would provide a better understanding of construction costs as well as operation and maintenance costs for RAID once it is constructed. Phase I support also allowed the PIs to work with the research community to develop more detailed science requirements for the drill. This proposal requests continued funding (Phase II) to construct, assemble and test the RAID drilling platform, through to staging it in Antarctic for future scientific operations.