Future space drilling and sample acquisition: A collaborative industry-government workshop

Abstract

A workshop on Planetary Drilling and Sample Acquisition was held at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, its purpose was to bring together the past decade of research and development results to define a framework for consistently and completely describing sample acquisition tasks for future Solar System missions, to survey the current state of knowledge of sample acquisition methods, and for each high priority application of sample acquisition technology, determine what had been demonstrated thus far vs. unaddressed areas. Combining inputs from government, academic and industrial participants, the workshop concluded that drilling missions that go 1-2 m deep (on the Moon, Mars, Europa or small bodies) are now feasible to propose in the 2020s, with potentially-high scientific payoff. Further, in developing complex sample acquisition systems for Solar System targets, the workshop agreed that both chamber tests and field tests at terrestrial analog sites are required. The workshop proposed adding cross-contamination and planetary protection requirements explicitly to instrument and surface mission flight calls, and also to add these as part of the technology readiness evaluation for NASA mission proposals.