A sub-glacial Antarctic lake sample is the first team to expect.
Gear later this week, not one of the UK engineering team with over 70 tons.
For this project, the UK Natural Environment Research Council by the sum of 7 million pounds to fund itself for the lake water and lake sediments on the floor of the goals is to take samples.
"We see the scheme of life for Lake Ellsworth, West Antarctic Ice Sheet and climate record to see" The project's main investigator, Professor Martin SIEGERT the University of Edinburgh, said.
Understanding the effects of future climate change predict the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is essential, as is at least equal to sea level (10ft) and 7 million 3M (23ft) of snow has gathered globally.
Pressure Limits
Lake Windermere, England for the same size - 2 3 km long 10 km wide and Lake Ellsworth.
But this is where the similarity ends.
3 km with a valley at the base of the Antarctic ice Ellsworth State.
Geothermal heat from Earth's interior by liquid water is natural.
Ground penetrating radar and seismic tests are connected using.
Among other things, the investigation revealed that the soft floor of the lake, which is probably a thick layer of sediment.
But samples of the lake and a mission to reach the engineering skills and ball skills, including the boundaries.
3.2km long pipe at the end of exercise in a standard equipment of hot water spray.
Ninety thousand liters of clean water, heat, ice, and then filtering by Ellsworth will be in place, using a boiler with a purpose.
It is 3.2km long and will be discarded at the end of the pipe nozzles.
5m during the investigation will be dropped into the hole from the lake, 24 flasks of water samples collected at different depths will be transmitted.
It is also easy and high definition video cameras, and filters will need to draw water from solids.
This tool is designed and much of oceanography Centre Southampton (NOC) is built under the supervision of Matt Mowlem.
"This is an environment - for example, we do not know if there will be water, dissolved gases," he said.
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Once the investigation is in York, coring equipment will be reduced in the vicinity of the lake floor sediment samples from the borehole.
1st Hot water drill, 3 km thick (2 miles) from the melt through ice and frozen. After excavation, they are drilled to collect samples before the frost-hole, an estimated 24 hour for sample collection.
2nd The probe is lowered through the borehole to collect a sample of water
3rd Professional Koala, to build from the bottom of the lake through the same hole again
Source: subglacial Lake Ellsworth Consortium
The whole process will be a race against time.
The water freezes on the sides of the borehole, which is gradually reduced. Professor Siegert is estimated that the window is about 24 hours to finish the two samples before the hole is too small.
First Contact
Nobody has any samples of the estimated 387 sub-glacial lakes in Antarctica, but the Russian, led the team focuses most - Lake Vostok - the U.S. and the crew prepares for the study of Lake Whillans.
Lake Vostok project for several years because of fears that drilling could contaminate the surface water bodies.
Proposed equipment team of Great Britain and procedures to avoid unwanted hitchhikers to the lake.
What's in the water is a mystery waiting to be demolished.
"Almost everywhere we look at the planet we see life from the outer reaches of the stratosphere in the deepest ocean trenches," said David Pearce of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which leads the search for microbial life in Lake Ellsworth.
"Every form of life we find, we have already encountered - will probably be viruses, and we have the bacteria, archaea (other unicellular organisms) and fungi ... maybe."
If the lake does not contain life, said Dr. Pearce, it would be interesting, also helps to determine under what conditions life can and can not exist.
Different Worlds
What is different with no new organisms are what we know, it will largely depend on how long the Lake Ellsworth was isolated - in other words, how long the West Antarctic ice sheet remained intact.
It is also an important issue on the climate side of the project, which basically consists of determining what is the probability of a layer of ice melts in coming decades and centuries.
"There is evidence from Antarctica, the sea was higher at different times in the past one million years - 125,000 years to 380,000 years ago - but there is no evidence that the water came from the West Antarctic ice sheet," said Professor Mike Bentley University of Durham.
"So one of the things you are looking for in our sediment core ... marine sediments, which vary from lake sediments."
If the team can record, as a layer of ice melted in the past, allowing scientists to better understand how it is likely to behave at a temperature in the future to reconstruct - and what would be possible to increase the temperature needed for remelting.
The equipment will be delivered to the base of Ellsworth in the next Antarctic summer, and stored separately from the harsh winter to follow.
The main scientific party will fly in about one year, to expand facilities and start drilling into the unknown.
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