Abstract
The rocks on extraterrestrial objects contain plenty of original geological and biological information. Drilling and sampling are an essential task in lunar exploration or future explorations of other planets like mars. Due to the limitation of payloads, energies, and drill pressure, the investigation of a lightweight and low‐powered rock‐drilling device is crucial for explorations of distant celestial bodies. The ultrasonic drill driven by piezoelectric ceramics is a new drilling device that can adapt to the arduous space rock‐drilling tasks in weak gravitational fields. An ultrasonic drill suitable for mounting on a planetary rover’s robotic arm is developed. The ultrasonic transducer’s energy conversion from electric energy to acoustic energy and the energy transmission from the horn’s high‐frequency vibration to the drill stem’s low‐frequency impact motion are analyzed to guide the design of the drill. To deeply understand the percussive drilling mechanism under high‐speed impact, the interaction between the drill stem and the rock is simulated using LS‐DYNA software. Drilling experiments on rocks with different hardness grades are conducted. The experiment results illustrate that the ultrasonic drill can penetrate into the hard rocks only taking a force of 6 N and a power consumption of 15 W. The study of ultrasonic drill will provide a reference method for sample collection of extraterrestrial rocks.
Highlights
The rock on extraterrestrial planets contains plenty of original geological and biological information [1]
The drilling devices need large power consumption and axial drilling pressure to penetrate into the rocks
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the first research institution that puts forward the concept of ultrasonic drill
Summary
The rock on extraterrestrial planets contains plenty of original geological and biological information [1]. With regard to the future deep space exploration tasks of planets, especially the targets far from the earth, this rock collection mode of rotary-percussive drill faces severe challenges due to the limited payloads and energies carried by probers. When operating on the planets like mars and asteroids with low gravity fields, the drilling devices need large axial drilling pressure to penetrate hard rocks. Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the first research institution that puts forward the concept of ultrasonic drill This new technology shows great potential in the field of in situ sampling and analysis for planet exploration tasks. For the future in situ detection of rocks on extraterrestrial objects like mars and asteroids, Research Center of Aerospace Mechanism and Control of Harbin Institute of Technology developed an ultrasonic driller/corer which is installed on the end effector of robotic arm. The driving characteristics and energy transfer process of the drill are studied, and the drilling experiments are conducted to validate the ultrasonic drill’s working performance
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