High Temperature Venus Drill and Sample Delivery System, Phase I

We proposed to design, build and test a high temperature Pneumatic Drill and Trencher system for Venus subsurface exploration. The Venus Drill and Trencher will be hybrid systems capable of acquiring surface and subsurface regolith as well as pulverized rocks (i.e. cuttings) from depth (the exact depth will be driven by the science requirement). The drill and the trencher unique sample delivery system will be able to transfer samples as they are being acquired, directly into the science instruments. Hence, these systems could be a single deployment system – it will have to drill/cut down once to deliver samples, and never retract. If the Venus Drill and/or Trencher will be deployed from a robotic arm, the system could be used multiple times. If the Venus Drill or the Trencher will be body mounted or mounted to a single degree of freedom system (spring deployable single action arm), it would be deployed once. Depending on the deployment requirements, the Drill and the Trencher could require just one actuator, while the remaining degrees of freedom (lowering the system to the ground and/or deploying the system some distance from the lander) could be achieved by a set of springs and hinges. More »