Long reach sampling for ocean worlds

Reaching beyond the immediate vicinity of a lander to place instruments or collect samples on ocean world bodies has many benefits. These include: an order-of-magnitude or more increase in the area and consequent choices for accessing samples or making observations compared to past lander-based manipulator systems, the ability to deploy samplers and instruments over the extreme topography expected on ocean worlds, and accessing crevasses and vents from a safe distance. We have developed prototypes of concepts for long reach sampling and for deploying instruments and sampling systems on ocean worlds. In the paper, we describe a self-righting system to anchor and collect samples up to 20 cm below the surface and two options for sampler or instrument deployment at distances greater than 10m from a lander. The concepts and results from tests on prototypes are described in the paper.

[1]  G. Neukum,et al.  Cassini Observes the Active South Pole of Enceladus , 2006, Science.

[2]  Scott Nolan Roberts.  Developing and Characterizing Bulk Metallic Glasses for Extreme Applications , 2014 .

[3]  Raymond E. Arvidson,et al.  Results from the Mars Phoenix Lander Robotic Arm experiment , 2009 .

[4]  Bonnie J. Buratti,et al.  Surface Properties, Regolith, and Landscape Degradation , 2009 .

[5]  Andrew E. Johnson,et al.  Design and analysis of map relative localization for access to hazardous landing sites on Mars , 2016 .

[6]  Bonnie J. Buratti,et al.  Enceladus: Implications of its unusual photometric properties , 1988 .

[7]  Yang Cheng,et al.  Indirect and direct planetary illumination modelling for robotic surface exploration sensing , 2016 .

[8]  C. Russell,et al.  Galileo magnetometer measurements: a stronger case for a subsurface ocean at Europa. , 2000, Science.

[9]  Mohammad Mojarradi,et al.  Electro-Mechanical Systems for Extreme Space Environments , 2011 .

[10]  Jason Perry,et al.  Enceladus' global geology as seen by Cassini ISS , 2005 .

[11]  Hans Joachim Schellnhuber,et al.  Habitable zone for Earth-like planets in the solar system , 2000 .

[12]  Raymond E. Arvidson,et al.  The Martian surface as imaged, sampled, and analyzed by the Viking landers , 1989 .

[13]  Gareth Meirion-Griffith,et al.  Surface mobility on ocean worlds , 2017, 2017 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

[14]  Christopher DellaCorte,et al.  Nickel-Titanium Alloys: Corrosion "Proof" Alloys for Space Bearing, Components and Mechanism Applications , 2010 .

[15]  Benjamin Donahue,et al.  Exploration opportunities enabled by the space launch system , 2016, 2016 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

[16]  M. Mellon,et al.  Science potential from a Europa lander. , 2013, Astrobiology.