Honeybee Robotics' MARTE drill is a highly automated deep drill and core retrieval system. The 10-axis system is designed for subsurface sample recovery and hand-off from depths of up to 10 meters. For project risk mitigation reasons, the nominal core and borehole diameter dimensions were chosen to be compatible with a terrestrial wireline coring system (Boart Longyear AQTK). The MARTE drill produces rock cores 27 mm in diameter and 250 mm long while creating a 48 mm diameter borehole. The drilling mechanism utilizes dry rotary cutting techniques including both carbide drag cutters and mono-crystal diamonds. An auger-type chip removal system moves the cuttings away from the drill bit and into a chip reservoir located inside the lead drill tube, which is emptied upon removal from the borehole. A core hand-off sub-system removes the acquired core from the lead drill tube and delivers it to a core clamp for sample preparation and delivery to scientific instruments for analysis. The system is designed to operate at or below 150 Watts average during nominal drilling operations. Highly integrated sensor feedback control on all drilling axes allows for future integration of intelligent drilling algorithms and fully autonomous operation.
The 10-m MARTE coring drill is largely based on a similar robotic drilling system built and tested by Honeybee Robotics for the Mars Technology Program (managed by JPL) from 2001-2003. The original system was designed to address Martian subsurface access requirements by acquiring stratigraphy-maintained core samples (Ø8mm) in both solid and unconsolidated material from ~10-m depths. Initial work focused on dry drilling and drill automation techniques. The original deep drilling effort culminated with two field tests of a prototype system at the Golden Sunset Mining and Milling Co. (outside Phoenix, Arizona) in December, 2002 and February, 2003. During the second field test, a borehole depth of 8.3-m was achieved with Mars "flight-like" power and thrust levels (<100W and <450N).
Honeybee Robotics has an extensive history, dating back to 1987, developing automated sampling and subsurface access devices for planetary exploration. Notable achievements include the 2003 MER Rock Abrasion Tools (successfully operating on Mars since January, 2004), the Mini-Corer (a rover-based coring drill originally developed for MSR and field tested on JPL's FIDO Rover in 1999) and the ST4/Champollion Sample Acquisition and Transfer Mechanism (SATM was a 1.2 meter comet sampling system tested to TRL-5 in 1999 before the mission was cancelled). In addition, Honeybee Robotics is currently developing numerous surface-based (rover and lander) and mole-type (tethered and untethered) drilling technologies for future missions to the Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter's moon Europa. More information about Honeybee Robotics can be found at www.HoneybeeRobotics.com.
