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[Loud Whispers]

China embarks on the road to transhumanism.

I have the expected severe doubts. I'd never before heard of this site.

The doubts are founded. Here's vice on it. I don't think they're getting eugenic just yet. Hardly unbiased. I think they're currently still trying to figure out whether there is a genetic predisposition to intelligence, not create IQ babies.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's not a thermonuclear detonation. Nuclear reactor =/= bomb. It's a nuclear heating element. Hell, at worst it'll make a hole less than 2 meters across.

Nevermind, then. I thought "nuclear drill" was a euphemism for nuking the Antarctic ice shelf.

[MonkeyHead]

Nah, basically form what I have seen and read, the device would be a shaped melting body using the energy from nuclear decay to warm its body and hence ice. Not some kind of drill spewing mushroom clouds and godzillas.

[Dutchling]

Don't let the politicians know that though, or we'll never get it funded.

[Scoops Novel]

It's not a thermonuclear detonation. Nuclear reactor =/= bomb. It's a nuclear heating element. Hell, at worst it'll make a hole less than 2 meters across.

Nevermind, then. I thought "nuclear drill" was a euphemism for nuking the Antarctic ice shelf.

Either you thought Humans where cool enough to nuke their way through to a delicious life bearing planet, and this was the only way to ensure funding, or - .

[kaian-a-coel]

here's the video: there

[Sheb]

They've left one problem unsolved. How do you get the signals from the ocean, through 30 km of ice? You can use radio, can't use light... You'll need to haul 20 km of cable to.

[kaian-a-coel]

I think that it's the idea, for the lack of a better option.

[10ebbor10]

Light works pretty well through clear ice

[kaian-a-coel]

I doubt that the massive ice sheet is going to be clear all the way. Just look at Antartica.

[10ebbor10]

Once you get below the surface, it's clear enough.

[Sheb]

Looking at a diagram, there doesn't seems to be more than 30m between detectors, meaning they have to detect (admittedly feint)  light 20m away. It's reasonable to expect the ice to be smooth for 20m, but for 20 km? You're going to have cracks and impurities.

[kaian-a-coel]

And each detector/transmitter needs enough battery to last for quite some time.

[Il Palazzo]

This whole endeavour needs to be done properly. I.e., it has to impress the local life forms.

This means that it has to have the most bang factor possible.

The old Orion project will be resuscitated, essentially sending the spaceship riding on top of a string of nuclear explosions.
Once there, a probe will descend onto the suface, and use a plutonium pellet-tipped drill to melt through the ice.
When that's done, it will send a kiloton-sized nuclear explosion device to the bottom of the ocean, and use its sensitive equipment to find out if there are any life forms moving about to help the survivors.
If it doesn't detect any, it'll activate it's 50-megaton self-destruct mechanism, allowing the scientists on Earth to detect the radiation signature coming from beneath the ice.
If it does detect life, it'll activate both of its self-destruct mechanisms, allowing the scientists to detect a differing signature.
Should it fail to detonate any of these, it'll surely mean that the local life forms have the technology to disable nuclear devices, and are probably pissed off now. So a fail-safe mechanism will activate in the spaceship in orbit, plunging it onto Europa with all of it's leftover nuclear cargo set to detonate on impact.

[Putnam]

Once you get below the surface, it's clear enough.

I don't see how neutrinos, which can go through most matter almost completely unimpeded, help show the transparentness of ice. Heck, it's almost the opposite.