Fig. 1: ENDURANCE is deployed through a large hole in the ice which is made by using heat to widen a smaller hole made with a mechanical drill. A heated building is place over the hole to house the vehicle when it is out of the water. During most operations, the vehicle never leaves the underside of the ice, but instead stops at the 100 m grid points and lowers the science package to within 1 m of the bottom where it takes an image and then returns to the vehicle.
