Planetary sampling tools?

"Matti Anttila" wrote in message
...
Now that we have seen the RAT performing great, it's also time to
think the future drilling/sampling tools.
Beagle-2 had the Rock Corer and Mole, but unfortunately they
were never used.

As fast as that thing hit the surface, it probably became a rock corer.

Doc

--
"I'm completely in favor of the separation
of Church and State. My idea is that
these two institutions screw us up
enough on their own, so both of them
together is certain death."

George Carlin

Since drilling rigs probably are energy intensive machinery, why not use some
sort of ballistic drilling rig that uses charges similar to a nail gun to drive
a coring device into the soil. Just a thought. Probably can create quite a
piston system with a powerful enough percussive charge. Less moving parts for
breakdowns as well. Now for the tricky part. How to extract the core back
out. I'll work on that one.

Art Martin

Azstrummer wrote:
Since drilling rigs probably are energy intensive machinery, why not use
some sort of ballistic drilling rig that uses charges similar to a nail
gun to drive a coring device into the soil.
...(snip)

There are different kind of plans to utilize for example piezo vibrations,
ultrasound or hammering (slight force or "brute force") mechanisms. At least
JPL has some protos, and so does ESA have. There is even an Intented ITT
opening soon by ESA (see ESA's EMITS web pages) for researching these
drilling systems.

The hammering system could be used also to mark the core's stratigaphic
position (in the planet's magnetic field) before ripping it up from the
borehole.

As the sci.space.tech seems a little non-crowded newsgroup, I place followup's
to sci.space.policy too.

This was my original post on 1st March:

Now that we have seen the RAT performing great, it's also time to
think the future drilling/sampling tools.
Beagle-2 had the Rock Corer and Mole, but unfortunately they
were never used.
So, so far (in Mars), we have the Vikings, which used a "shovel",
and the MERs, which have the RAT and the "wheel digging method".
Sojourner didn't have any particular drilling/grinding tool, but
it had the APXS.

But what next?

Phoenix will have some sort of dipper/shovel? But then we have the
rovers, which launch in 2009: ExoMars (ESA) and MSL (NASA), if all
goes well. So what kind of mechanical tools should they have?
I have particular interest to this subject since I'm making an
academic study on this subject, and I've worked with one possible
ExoMars' tool:

The MRoSA2 Drill ( http://antti.la/mrosa2/index2.html#drill )

A good size reference: MRoSA2 & Beagle-2:
http://antti.la/mrosa2/gallery/Miro_and_Beagle-2.jpg

Basically, I am searching all kind of concepts of drilling/sampling
instruments, which could be used in subsurface sampling for in-situ
analysing (in the borehole or on the rover), or samples for
the Mars Sample Return missions.
What kind of instruments should be used for drilling & sampling in the
2009 missions and in the future MSR missions? And what have already been
made to a prototype level or even in blueprints? I have some knowledge
of these existing instruments, but new ideas and hints are always welcome!


Best regards,

Matti Anttila
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