Science Rationale and Technical Approach for Drilling on the Moon and Mars
- Paper number
IAC-07-A5.2.02
- Author
Dr. Carol Stoker, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Ames Research Center, United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Drilling is needed to address many important scientific questions on both the moon and Mars. Science objectives for the moon [1]requiring drilling include the study of regolith formation processes, sampling a variety of basalts, studying impact processes, character-izing lunar polar volatiles, and searching for samples of astrobiological importance. Obtaining full profiles of lunar regolith is achievable with a 10-20 m drill; slightly deeper drilling could obtain bedrock. On Mars, the overarching goal of exploration is searching for life. Martian surface conditions destroy organics so finding a record of biological activity probably requires drilling. Should life survive on Mars now, it may experience growth spurts when, due to orbital forcing, sunlight is stronger and high latitude ice deposits melt. By drilling 5 m in the Northern plains, a record of 10M years of cyclic freeze-thaw may be accessed [2]. Similar depth drilled samples could discover ancient biosignatures in low latitude sedimentary rocks. Liquid water may occur in the Martian subsurface locally at relatively modest (100-500 m) depths [3], suggesting searching for modern life in Martian aquifers. Pumped subsurface liquid water could be an important resource for human missions. MARTE project [4] developed and field tested a fluidless, low power, autonomous 10 m coring drill and sample handing system in a Mars mission simulation. Although the rela-tively large mass needed for MARTE’s drill (50 kg) dictates a large lander, wireline drills with much lower mass are under development: a 10 kg system could achieve 10 m depth with modest mass penalty for increased depth. Design issues to be addressed for autonomous planetary drilling include operational simplicity, bit change-out, cutting a range of materials, cuttings removal, and casing for hole stability. While a fully automated shallow drill is feasible, deep drilling would benefit greatly by humans tending the drill at crucial junctures. Modular, reconfigurable, autonomous and human-tended drilling systems are needed for lunar and Mars robotic missions and ulti-mately by crewed missions. [1] Nat. Res. Council Scientific Context for exploration of the Moon, interim report, 2006. [2] McKay, C.P. et al., 38th LPSC 2007. [3] Heldmann, J. and M. Mellon, Icarus 168, 2004. [4] Stoker, C. and MARTE team, 37th LPSC Abs. 1537, 2006.
- Abstract document