Though outer space is often touted as the “last frontier,” we probably know more about the heavens than we do about what is going on in the ground beneath our feet. To date, scientists have yet to penetrate through the crust that that forms the outermost skin of the Earth.

All this may soon change thanks to the Japanese drilling ship Chikyu (Earth), an ocean vessel designed to drill up to 6.2 miles into the Earth’s crust. After tests in Japan’s coastal waters, Chikyu is scheduled to head out into deeper Pacific waters where it will attempt to drill all the way up to the Earth’s mantle.

The purpose of the drilling is to study deep layer rocks and mud for information about past climate change and unknown life-forms (Morlocks?)

Chikyu will also plant sensors in hopes of advancing the science of earthquake prediction (and also probably will be blamed for every earthquake that happens from now till kingdom come).

Still, the work of Chikyu represents only one small baby step for mankind. Even after reaching the Earth’s mantle, there will still be 3,959 more miles to go in the journey to the center of the Earth.