Dante to descend into Mt. Spurr - Dante robot to explore crater of Mt. Spurr, an active volcano in Alaska - Brief Article

Science News,  May 21, 1994  

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In the Divine Comedy, Dante showed that he was no quitter. The poet slogged his way through hell and then purgatory before finally reaching paradise.

Likewise, the mechanical Dante (below) won't stop after one defeat. Created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, this rappelling robot suffered setbacks while trying to descend into the smoking crater of Antarctica's Mt. Erebus in early 1993 (SN: 1/9/93, p.22). But this summer, a strengthened version of Dante will rise to its eight feet and make another mountaineering attempt, this time at the opposite end of the world.

Dante will explore the crater of Alaska's Mt. Spurr, an active volcano that erupted three times in 1992. The blasts disrupted air travel and rained ash on Anchorage, 125 kilometers to the east. If Dante can reach Mt. Spurr's crater floor, it will measure the temperature and composition of escaping gases and take photographs.

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