ROBOT'S MISSION IN VOLCANO SCUTTLED BY FIBER-OPTIC BREAK

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 3, 1993                   TAG: 9301030053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GREENBELT, MD.                                LENGTH: Medium
ROBOT'S MISSION IN VOLCANO SCUTTLED BY FIBER-OPTIC BREAK
NASA scuttled its Dante mission to explore the inside of an active volcano at the bottom of the world with a spidery robot after its fiber-optic umbilical cord broke, officials said Saturday.
The mission was called off after scientists concluded they couldn't repair the break or ship a new cable to the Antarctic site before severe weather set in, said Randee Exler, a spokeswoman at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
Barbara Selby, another NASA spokeswoman, said getting the new cable to the icy continent could have taken "several days."
Despite the cable break, which occurred near the robot itself, mission director Dave Lavery called the effort an "unqualified success." He said it demonstrated that scientists could someday control a robot on another planet from earth.
"The disappointment is that we weren't able to conclude the scientific part of the mission," said Exler. Scientists had hope the robot could spend three days inside the volcano.
The 8-foot-high robot, named for the main character in the "Divine Comedy" by 14th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri, stalled Friday after descending 21 feet down into the crater of Mount Erebus.
In Greek mythology, Erebus is the last stop before Hades.
Controlling the half-ton machine from a hut about a mile from the volcano, scientists had hoped to lower it 700 feet down the side of the crater. They will retrieve it before leaving Antarctica, Exler said.
Scientists at first thought the problem was in a computer which controls the robot, but later discovered a break in the fiber-optic cable, Selby said.
She said the cable, which cannot be readily spliced, apparently was kinking at several points as it was unrolled, and the break occurred at one of those points.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB