JPL's Lloyd French endured eight hours cramped in the tiny sphere with two pilots and mounds of electronic equipment, controlling the probe with a laptop computer. Waiting anxiously on board were principal investigators Lonne Lane from JPL and Gary McMurtry, an oceanographer and vent specialist from the University of Hawaii. Building the probe has been an unusual project from the start. The idea was born a year ago when McMurtry challenged Lane to design a life-searching instrument that could survive the hydrothermal vents that he expects on Europa. The probe is basically an instrument package on a stalk.
Lights shine from the windows, illuminating the deep-sea darkness.
Images travel through the windows and up fiber-optic rods, to cameras mounted at the other end of the probe, a safe distance from the hot water that could fry the electronics. One of the cameras is sharp enough to photograph micro-organisms. Pressure proved to be the biggest stumbling block for the JPL engineers, who are accustomed to building instruments for pressure-free space. When the JPL team sent an early version of the probe to Hawaii for pressure testing in a lab, one of the windows blew out. Shards of sapphire are still embedded in the probe's hardened steel wall.