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Robotic Inchworm Drill for Mars, Europa

Posted by Hemos on from the is-kevin-bacon-involved? dept.

Erik Baard writes " The NY Times (reg. blah) is currently an article on robotic inchworm drills. NASA is funding Honeybee Robotics' R&D to create an inchworming "underground rover" based in part on a steam pipe welding machine the company built for Con Ed (called the WISER). The autonomous robot (scroll here to the Inchworm Deep Drilling System -- http://www.honeybeerobotics.com/sample.htm) would reach *kilometers* into Mars or Jupiter's moon, Europa, where scientists expect to find liquid water, and just possibly, life. Other drill designs could go perhaps a meter down. The inchworm could either gnaw its way back to the surface, or lay a series of radio relay stations ("bread crumbs") to pass the data signal to an amplifier on the surface to communicate with Earth. Yeah, I'm a regular /.er. And yeah, the NYT online spelled my name wrong."

4 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Great Idea for Mars, but maybe not Europa by tolleyl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not sure that this will be the best way to perform some deep drilling experiments on Europa since you will be drilling through various forms of ice. The friction of the cutting heads could melt the ice and force the robot to deal with liquids rather than solids. Since the temperature there is so cold it would be easier to have a radiothermal battery that would provide the heat to simply melt through the ice. You have your probe be heavier than water so that it will displace the liquid and melt some more. When you want to resurface, drop some ballast and melt your way back up. However, for places like Mars and many places on Earth, a self-contained drill of this sort would be very useful.

    1. Re:Great Idea for Mars, but maybe not Europa by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem with melting is that it takes a LOT of energy. The surface of Europa is 130K (-143C, -225F). That means to need to heat the Ice to 0C, then supply enough energy to melt it...

      Keep in mind that the rest of the ice in the area is still going to be at -143C. (or very near -143C, if it's immediately adjactent to the driller) So you have to supply enough heat to make up for conduction losses in order to raise the temperature.

      As a home experiment, try piercing an ice cube with a soldering iron. Takes longer than you thought, doesn't it? Now imagine the ice cube to be the size of the moon, and the temperature of the ice and surrounding air was come 170 degrees colder.

      The heat generated from the friction of cutting blades would be absolutely negligable at -143C.
      As another home experiment, try drilling through an ice cube. It's not going to melt all that much (if at all). Now imagine the ice cube to be the size of the moon, and the temperature of the ice and surrounding air was come 170 degrees colder.

      Melting may be 'simpler' in that it mas no moving parts, but drilling is by far more practical.

      Anyone care to offer an estimation on the dimentions of the probe? I'll gladly work out the actual power required to melt the ice and maintain a liquid barrier around it at these temperatures.
      =Smidge=

  2. Money isn't everything... by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Exploration cannot be measured by money spent or investment. The same goes to knowledge. If NASA's mission advances the knowledge we humans have of Mars, I say it is worth doing it.

    It has just been forty years since astronauts / cosmonauts were celebrities, heroes, and a rocket launch was an event. Now, astronauts are glorified tv repairmen and a launch is no longer measured by its success or the limits it breaks but by the money it wastes.

    I doubt there will be a lot of surprise in what we find in exploring the Earth's oceans, comparatively speaking. The surprises that can come from the exploration of an alien planet, however, can be revolutionary.

    --
    Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
  3. NASA, the problem by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful
    It's unfortunate that Honeybee, which has done some good industrial robots, has been sucked into the NASA black hole. NASA robotics work sucks up good people from industrial robotics and wastes their time on space robots that never launch.

    There have been some big flops, like the Flight Telerobotic Servicer, on which several hundred million dollars were blown.