Sometimes a story comes along that is just plain intriguing. The person, or government may deny that it ever happened, but the subject matter is so cool that you just have to talk about it. A story of this type came to my attention a couple of days ago. It had all the elements that make a story interesting. It spoke about Atlantis and a secret government project and the Antarctic. What could be more interesting than that?

The story headline was "U.S. Denies Cryobot Invasion". At first I was wondering what this was all about. I wasn't even sure what a Cryobot was, except it was a word that sort of meant cold and robot. Did we have robots that were either very cold or operated in extremely cold regions? Even if we did, would we have enough to invade anywhere? I just had to read this article and see what the heck was going on.

According to the article the U.S. has developed ice-penetrating Cryobots that were created to explore other planets. It goes on to say that ruins were found under Antarctica and these robots were sent down to them to give a look see. Ruins under Antarctica? This is one place that is supposed to be devoid of ruins, finding anything there would have serious consequences for Earth's history. It would mean that a place that long has been thought to have been barren may have had civilized life and that this life may have been very old, because it would most likely have had to have existed before the ice was created. This could be a wrong assumption, but it is hard to picture human life existing at such severe temperatures.

Now for the denial. An Air Force General stated that there are no ruins below the ice and that there aren't even any Cryobots. Ouch! Who is telling the truth here? But asked if the Air Force was at the location, the reply was that they were but they were helping to build a research station and in fact they were partnered up with the National Research Foundation. The reply was said to be terse.

So how do these supposed Cryobots operate? It is said that they create some type of sterile zone around themselves and they plunge through the ice. They become very hot and are able to melt their way down. They send a stream of hot water ahead of them. As data is collected it is radioed back to a station. The real question is, are we really building a research station or examining ruins or are both cover stories?

Why would this country want to keep it secret that it had Cryobots? Could there be other uses for these things that are a lot more sinister? Some people think that the U.S. is trying to salvage a lost nuclear reactor.

Did the U.S. ever state that they were developing Cryobots? It seems that we were considering Cryobots to use on Mars. The idea was that they would melt their way down through the ice and send back important data about the planet and what was under the ice. Could it be that NASA thought that they might discover life under the ice on Mars or ruins? The American Nuclear Society's Nuclear News carried a front cover depicting a Cryobot lander in it's December, 2002 issue.

On January 10, 2002 NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory put out a new release that stated in part "Ice Explorer Conceived for Other Worlds Gets Arctic Test
January 10, 2002

NASA teamed with the Norwegian Polar Institute and Norwegian Space Center to use the ice-penetrating robot, or Cryobot, for the first time on a glacier on the island of Spitsbergen, far above the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian-administered international territory of Svalbad."

Graphics Credit: NASA JPL

LEFT: The Cryobot method of "drilling" is more effective than conventional auguring because it uses less power than mechanical cutting. Melting the ice and moving through the resulting liquid makes it easier for the probe to make its journey

RIGHT: Concept artwork shows the Active Thermal Probe (Mars Cryobot) melting down through the northern ice cap on Mars.

It seems that we certainly do have Cryobots. What we are doing in the South Pole is not so clear. Could we be examining the ruins of Atlantis? If we are, why would we keep it secret? Maybe we think there is a chance of finding advanced technology and we want to keep the finds secret. Could we be trying to retrieve that lost nuclear reactor that was talked about? Maybe, but we don't seem to be able to retrieve others that went down with submarines and it seems that this one would be a lot harder to get to if it exists. Do any other reasons exist for using Cryobots there or are we really just building a research station? I can't answer this question but I wonder if we are looking for oil or some precious ores? Ah who really knows? Only Uncle Sam knows for sure.