The Not-So-Big Dig - drilling on Mars

cIclops · 2006-11-05 07:05:11

The Not-So-Big Dig by Tom Harpole in the November 2006 issue of Air & Space Magazine

The requirements for a Mars drill are daunting. The machine must collect cuttings and cores, analyze the samples, and transmit the findings to Earth. It must weigh less than 90 pounds and run on an energy budget of less than 100 watts, drilling a roughly two-inch diameter hole to produce a one-inch core.

Rxke · 2006-11-06 10:46:04

Required reading IMHO. Article could find a place in the Wiki, brings home very clearly remote drilling ain't an easy job.

Also interesting read for the 'asteroid miners' amongst us....

Grypd · 2006-11-08 05:34:33

It is always going to be a problem to work on the Moon,Mars and Asteroids. We honestly rely on gravity to allow us to do a lot of things and with different gravities we find that what we take for granted just will not work.

SpaceNut · 2006-11-08 11:31:33

Posted those a long time ago and when I find the other I will add it here.

With any sort of sample and return mission there is a question of what type of sample do we wish to obtain. This also ties into what are we looking for.
The rovers have done an excelent job of give us some key finds with respect to mineralogy and a sample return can only add to that info.
Now we can just scoup up the sample or we can grind it off a rock but to drill it would mean a much different type of lander.
The Mars Analog Deep Drill System
Honeybee Robotics' MARTE drill is a highly automated deep drill and core retrieval system. The 10-axis system is designed for subsurface sample recovery and hand-off from depths of up to 10 meters.
This drill has gotten some testing in the artic as I recall but the thread escapes me back during the summer of 2005.
NASA Field-Tests the First System Designed to Drill for Subsurface Martian Life
Mars is desert-like and much colder than Earth's Antarctica. Nearly all the time, the temperature on Mars is far below zero. Its surface is much too frigid, and the martian air is too thin for liquid water to occur. Life as we know it requires liquid water.
There are other possibilities for such drills other than searching for life though.
Of course with some more testing under the bit one can only hope that once it gets to mars that it will find resources that will make efforts to stay on mars more likely.
[url=http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/385435359.shtml]NASA readies drill for Mars
Researchers bring subsurface technology closer to application in outer space[/url]

SpaceNut · 2006-11-08 22:20:10

Well I found one of the items but there still is a university document that has been posted before on this topic.

NASA'S New Plan Drill is a 60-Watt Time
Geologists, biologists and archaeologists for years have used core samples to look back in time, tunneling through layers of soil and stone to study history. NASA engineers are taking this veteran technique into the future with a design that can bore into other planets using just a light bulb's worth of power.
This month they will drill more than six feet deep into the tundra of the Canadian Arctic with a futuristic tool that is a cross between an oil rig and a portable household drill, making it ideal for space exploration.

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#1 2006-11-05 07:05:11

Re: The Not-So-Big Dig - drilling on Mars

#2 2006-11-06 10:46:04

Re: The Not-So-Big Dig - drilling on Mars

#3 2006-11-08 05:34:33

Re: The Not-So-Big Dig - drilling on Mars

#4 2006-11-08 11:31:33

Re: The Not-So-Big Dig - drilling on Mars

#5 2006-11-08 22:20:10

Re: The Not-So-Big Dig - drilling on Mars

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