A scientific mission to study Antarctica’s rapidly melting Thwaites Glacier ended in heartbreak over the weekend, when researchers’ instruments became stranded somewhere within half-mile tract of glacial ice. According to the New York Times — which embedded with a team of researchers to install instruments beneath the infamous “Doomsday Glacier” — instruments meant to record data on the waters underneath Thwaites only made it about three-quarters of the way to their icy destination. To create a hole reaching the Antarctic waters, scientists and engineers blasted a borehole around one foot in diameter and about 3,300 feet deep using hot water. Unless the team kept applying hot water, they estimated it would re-freeze in just 48 hours. Their window of opportunity only lasted the weekend — if the scientists didn’t secure the instruments by Monday, an approaching front of bad weather would prevent helicopters from extracting them, effectively stranding them for an indeterminate period of time. Despite successfully dipping a set of pilot instruments into the drink before pulling them back out again, their main equipment …