Stone Aerospace specializes in autonomous underwater exploration vehicles. Due to this expertise, they were contracted by NASA to develop the underwater equivalent of a Mars rover. This underwater rover will be used to explore the oceans underneath the ice-crusted moon of Jupiter, Europa. Europa is one of the only existing celestial bodies in our solar system that we know contains large amounts of water, and it is speculated there is very possibly life in the vast oceans on this moon. However, it is covered by an ice crust several miles thick. Stone Aerospace has been tasked with adapting their existing autonomous underwater exploration vehicles for use on Europa and developing a first-generation prototype ice-boring probe. After constructing the Pioneer Water Tank, initial testing of the prototype ice-boring probe will be carried out immediately, as their contract with NASA is several months behind schedule. A month after initial testing on-site in the Pioneer Water Tank, the ice boring probe prototype will be transported to Alaska for testing in a glacier. The customer was very impressed with the Pioneer Water Tank and the building services provided by Tank Builders. Several features they were impressed by were the top-hoop truss reinforcement, the top HDPE angle, the corrosion resistance of next generation ZINCALUME® steel, the anchoring system, and the willingness of Tank Builders to stage the installation in a way that allowed them to coat the inside of the metal shell with truck bed liner. They purchase this tank is to replace a failed tank supplied by another manufacturer. The comments I got from the engineers at Stone Aerospace indicated that it was obvious that the Pioneer tank was designed as a water storage tank and fit for purpose, and the previous brand tank was simply an adaptation of an existing grain bin.
