Field Testing of Planetary Drill in the Arctic

The search for evidence of ancient climates, extinct or extant life, past geological history, or resource exploration requires drilling and sample acquisition. Given lightspeed time delays that are much longer than the time required (fraction of a second) to get a sampling drill stuck, Earth-based teleoperation is not feasible for drilling operations on Mars or the Moon. Drilling must be self-contained and autonomous, unlike terrestrial commercial drilling technologies, and must drill blind without prior geophysical surveys. The Drill Automation for Mars Exploration (DAME) drill has been built with a sole purpose of developing and testing autonomous operation. The drill has been extensively tested in the analog environments in the Arctic four times. In 2006, the drill reached a record depth of 3.19 m, successfully demonstrating autonomous operation.