Armed with some metal tubes, a heavy coat, and a sturdy pair of boots, Richard Hoover hopes to literally break ground in the search for alien life.
But the project won't be done on the moon, Mars or, in fact, anywhere beyond Earth.
It will be conducted in the hills and mountains of Antarctica, on an expedition to find microorganisms thriving in the blistering cold.
Such creatures, which can survive in such environments, are called extremophiles.
The hope is that the techniques used to locate life in the extreme environments on Earth could be applied to a search for extraterrestrial life.
In January, Hoover will be heading up the scientific experiments on a 10-person expedition to Antarctica.
Along with Hoover, a scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the team also includes two former astronauts, Jim Lovell and Owen Garriott, as well as a middle school teacher from Illinois.
Garriott, who is 68, is not deterred by the extreme environment. "I take care of myself," the rugged-sounding ex-astronaut says. Still, he adds, "you need to be very careful about what you're doing and know what you're doing, or you could get yourself in trouble."
The team's technique on this expedition is fairly brutal: slamming stainless steel tubes through chunks of ice and rock, yanking them out with contents inside, and sealing them.
The tubes containing core samples, the largest of which will be a half-inch wide and a half-meter in length, will then be brought back to NASA for analysis.
The Planetary Studies Foundation is involved in the project, and the team's mission also includes a search for meteorites.
The group will use a Twin Otter plane, snowmobiles and their feet to maneuver through Antarctica's Patriot Hills and the 9000-foot-high Thiel Mountains.
Several of the team members have already worked in such bitter cold. Still, danger will lurk everywhere and discomfort will be the rule.
The group will have to deal with the blistering cold and bone-chilling wind, as well as avoid crevasses that could send team members plummeting to their death.
Bedtime will be less than comfortable -- tents will have to be pitched on the ice.
At age 56, Hoover has already done similar experiments on an Alaskan glacier and the permafrost of northern Siberia. He says he's used to the cold, and prepared for the dangers.
"I really think the conditions in Antarctica will probably be more pleasant than in Siberia," he said optimistically.
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