--- description: Antarctica's Lake Bonney is an inaccessible place locked under 15 ft. of ice. But scientists may soon explore it, thanks to a 6.5-ft., 3,000-lb. NASA-funded robot sub just tested in Wisconsin's Lake... title: Ice Diver image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Science](/section/science/) # Ice Diver by [Department](/author/department/) Feb 29, 2008 5:00 AM CUT by [Department](/author/department/) Feb 29, 2008 5:00 AM CUT Antarctica’s Lake Bonney is an inaccessible place locked under 15 ft. of ice. But scientists may soon explore it, thanks to a 6.5-ft., 3,000-lb. NASA-funded robot sub just tested in Wisconsin’s Lake Mendota. The sub performed so well, it could be diving in Lake Bonney by year’s end. It may also serve as a prototype for a mission to the icy oceans on Jupiter’s moon Europa. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596833/ice-diver/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596833/ice-diver/"},"headline":"Ice Diver","datePublished":"2008-02-29T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T05:58:22.512Z","description":"Antarctica's Lake Bonney is an inaccessible place locked under 15 ft. of ice. But scientists may soon explore it, thanks to a 6.5-ft., 3,000-lb. NASA-funded robot sub just tested in Wisconsin's Lake...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6596833/ice-diver/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Department","url":"https://time.com/author/department/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596833/ice-diver/","name":"Ice Diver"}}]}] ```