High Temperature Venus Drill and Sample Delivery System
Project Description
Under Phase 1, we investigated HT Drill, HT Trencher, and Pneumatic Sample Delivery. We found that HT Trencher and Blower-based pneumatic system won't be feasible or carried high risk associated with development of HT cutter materials. Rotary drill also did not penetrate hard rocks. For Phase 2, we propose HT Rotary-Percussive drill and 'suction' based pneumatic sample delivery. Honeybee is also submitting a separate Phase 2 for 3 DOF HT arm. If that proposal gets selected, the arm will deploy the drill and deposit the sample. The pneumatic system would still be needed to move the sample into an instrument. We plan to design and build TRL 5 system and incorporate HT motors developed by Honeybee under prior SBIR projects. The demonstration will be done in a HT chamber. We will investigate possibility of testing at NASA JPL's Venus chamber. The demo will include drilling into hard rocks and sample transfer to a mock up instrument.
More »Anticipated Benefits
The HT drill and sample transfer system would be used on New Frontiers Venus (Venus In Situ Explorer) mission. Missions to other planetary bodies with atmospheres (Titan, Mars) could also benefit this technology.
The HT technology is required for geothermal drilling applications as well as in Oil and Gas industry where wells are deeper and in much hotter regions (300 C and more). The small, robust sampling systems could also be used in hazardous locations (e.g. concrete samples from nuclear reactors or soil samples from chemical spills, and volcanos).
Project Library
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honeybee Robotics LLC | Lead Organization | Industry | Longmont, Colorado |
| Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) | Supporting Organization | FFRDC/UARC | Pasadena, California |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
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California
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Colorado
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New York
