Testing of the Prototype Mars Drill and Sample Acquisition System in the Mars Analog Site of the Antarctica's Dry Valleys

Details Testing of the Prototype Mars Drill and Sample Acquisition System in the Mars Analog Site of the Antarctica's Dry Valleys Testing of the Prototype Mars Drill and Sample Acquisition System in the Mars Analog Site of the Antarctica's Dry Valleys

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p42b..02z&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P42B-02

Biology

[5200] Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology, [5400] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars, [6297] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

We report on the testing of the one meter class prototype Mars drill and cuttings sampling system, called the IceBreaker in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. The drill consists of a rotary-percussive drill head, a sampling auger with a bit at the end having an integrated temperature sensor, a Z-stage for advancing the auger into the ground, and a sampling station for moving the augered ice shavings or soil cuttings into a sample cup. In November/December of 2010, the IceBreaker drill was tested in the Uni-versity Valley (within the Beacon Valley region of the Antarctic Dry Valleys). University Valley is a good analog to the Northern Polar Regions of Mars because a layer of dry soil lies on top of either ice-cemeted ground or massive ice (depending on the location within the valley). That is exactly what the 2007 Phoenix mission discovered on Mars. The drill demonstrated drilling in ice-cemented ground and in massive ice at the 1-1-100-100 level; that is the drill reached 1 meter in 1 hour with 100 Watts of power and 100 Newton Weight on Bit. This corresponds to an average energy of 100 Whr. At the same time, the bit temperature measured by the bit thermocouple did not exceed more than 10 °C above the formation temperature. The temperature also never exceeded freezing, which minimizes chances of getting stuck and also of altering the materials that are being sampled and analyzed. The samples in the forms of cuttings were acquired every 10 cm intervals into sterile bags. These tests have shown that drilling on Mars, in ice cemented ground with limited power, energy and Weight on Bit, and collecting samples in discrete depth intervals is possible within the given mass, power, and energy levels of a Phoenix-size lander and within the duration of a Phoenix-like mission.

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