LunarVader: Testing of a 1 meter lunar drill in a 3.5 meter vacuum chamber and in the Antarctic lunar analog site

In this paper we report on the development of a rotary-percussive sampling drill, LunarVader. The purpose of the drill is to penetrate at least 1 meter in icy-regolith and acquire sub-surface sample for science analysis and for the In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). The drill was tested in a lunar analog site of the Ross Island, in the Antarctic and inside the 3.5 meter vacuum chamber in ice-bound JSC-1a lunar soil simulant. In both cases, the drill reached ∼1 meter depth in approximately one hour. The average power was 100 Watts and Weight on Bit was less than 100 Newton. This corresponds to the drilling energy of 100 Whr. In each case approximately 500 grams of sample was recovered and autonomously deposited into a sterile bag.