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F rom I nne r E a rth to O ute r S p a c e


I n th e 1 9 3 0 s, Conra d a nd M a rc e l S c h l um be rg e r be g a n d e v e l op m e nt of tool s a nd se nsors to e x p l ore E a rth ’ s inne r sp a c e . S om e 7 5 y e a rs l a te r, sim il a r d e te c tors a re h e l p ing sc ie ntists inv e stig a te th e f und a m e nta l na ture a nd orig in of obj e c ts in oute r sp a c e .


J oe l L e e G rov e s J oh n S im one tti S te f a n V a j d a


W ol f g a ng Z ie g l e r


Princeton Junction, New Jersey, USA Jacob


I. T rom bka


Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, USA


For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Edward Durner, Steve Meddaugh, Jim Roderick and Joel Wiedemann, Princeton Junction, New Jersey.


EcoScope is a mark of Schlumberger. Teflon is a mark of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.


1. Andersen RN, Jarrard R, Pezard P, Williams C and Dove R: “Logging for Science,” The Technical Review36, no. 4 (October 1988): 4–11.


2. Kerr RA: “Signs of a Warm, Ice-Free Arctic,” Science305, no. 5691 (September 17, 2004): 1693.


3. For more on deep-ocean drilling: Brewer T, Endo T, Kamata M, Fox PJ, Goldberg D, Myers G, Kawamura Y, Kuramoto S, Kittredge S, Mrozewski S and Rack FR: “Scientific Deep-Ocean Drilling: Revealing the Earth’s Secrets,” Oilfield Review16, no. 4 (Winter 2004/2005): 24–37.


4. Acceleration is often expressed in units of g-force (gn), which is defined as 9.80665 m/s2, approximately equal to the acceleration due to gravity on the Earth’s surface at sea level.


On a cold day in February 2001, a spacecraft landed on 433 Eros, an asteroid between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft had completed its five-year journey to investigate fundamental questions about the nature and origin of near-Earth objects for the first time. The technical demands of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous NEAR-Shoemaker (NEAR) mission were immense. A multidisciplinary team of US National


Administration (NASA) scientists and engineers drew


from many scientific and Applying technologies developed for oil and


gas exploration to scientific endeavors is not a new practice. Oilfield technologies have often been applied in the interest of science. For example, deep-drilling projects conducted on land and in most major oceans of the world have contributed to our understanding of Earth’s past as well as its future. Engineers and scientists with the interna-


Aeronautics and Space industrial


resources, including the predominantly inner- Earth-focused oil and gas industry.


tionally funded Ocean Drilling Program began subsea drilling operations in 1961 to explore the hard outer layer of the Earth’s crust, or lithosphere. Scientists used tools and techniques developed for oil and gas exploration to document continental drift and to generate a substantial quantity of data relating to plate tectonics.1


> Distant spiral galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of light that left the spiral galaxy NGC1300 more than 69 million years ago. Barred spirals differ from normal spiral galaxies in that the arms of the galaxy do not spiral all the way into the center, but are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the nucleus at its center. At Hubble’s resolution, fine details, some of which have never before been seen, show disk, bulge and nucleus throughout the galaxy’s arms. The nucleus shows its own distinct spiral structure that is about 3,300 light-years across. The image was constructed from exposures taken in September 2004 by the Advanced Camera for Surveys. (Image courtesy of NASA.)


44 Oilfield Review


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