British scientists plan to drill through 3 km of ice to take samples from Lake Ellsworth which is in the Antarctic Circle. They will use a hot water drill to reach the lake which has been isolated for about 125,000 years. One goal of this project is to find unknown life in the lake and discover new species. Even if no life is found, it will still provide information about the conditions in which life can not exist. Another goal is to find clues of how future climate conditions may impact the ice sheet. This is important because this ice sheet has enough ice to raise global sea levels by at least 10 feet. Scientists can determine how much the ice has melted in the past during certain climate conditions to predict the effects on it in the future. Lastly, the final goal is to design a mission to use to find life on other planets with similar conditions. On Jupiter's moon Europa, there is a thick layer of ice which is believed to be on top of a liquid ocean.
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