The Inchworm Deep Drilling System for Kilometer Scale Subsurface Exploration of Europa (IDDS)

Details The Inchworm Deep Drilling System for Kilometer Scale Subsurface Exploration of Europa (IDDS) The Inchworm Deep Drilling System for Kilometer Scale Subsurface Exploration of Europa (IDDS)

Jan 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001iaop.work...68r&link_type=abstract

Forum on Innovative Approaches to Outer Planetary Exploration 2001-2020, p. 68

Biology

Drilling, Europa, Samplers, Satellite Surfaces, Core Sampling, Exobiology, Oceans, Mission Planning

Scientific paper

The Inchworm Deep Drilling System (IDDS) is a compact subsurface transport system capable of accessing regions of astrobiological interest deep below the surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa. The IDDS answers Focus Investigation Area 1 as an innovative concept for implementing subsurface exploration of Europa. The concept is being developed at Honeybee Robotics to reach depths on the order of one kilometer with no tether or umbilical of any kind. The device's unique, inchworm-burrowing method appears capable of achieving this near-term depth goal and it is foreseeable that the IDDS will be capable of autonomously drilling to tens of kilometers below the surface. Logical applications of the concept also include accessing the proposed subsurface oceans on Ganymede and Callisto, subsurface water ice on Mars, and Lake Vostok on Earth. The conference presentation will communicate the IDDS concept and how it can enable the search for prebiotic and biotic chemical processes on Europa by bringing proper instrumentation to the subsurface ocean for in-situ investigation and/or returning samples to the surface. Currently, a proposal for breadboarding the IDDS is pending for the Research Opportunities for Space Science's Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development NRA. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

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