Current melt probe designs increase their rate of penetration by shooting hot water jets towards the ice surface in addition to passively melting surrounding ice. In this paper pulsed plasma discharges taking place at the nose of the melt probe were investigated as a low power, less mechanically complex, alternative to water jetting systems. A prototype plasma melt probe was constructed and tested on solid ice in a low temperature, −17 °C, laboratory environment. The rate of penetration was determined for both passive heating and heating coupled with plasma discharges at 4.5 cm/h and 11 cm/h respectively. The 140% increase in the penetration rate occurred with a <5% increase in required power when compared to the passive melting mode. This is potentially due to microcracking and convection induced by the plasma discharges. The rate of penetration of the pulsed plasma melt probe is low compared to water jetting melt probes, but this is due to the low total power of around 40 W compared to 0.5 to 5 kW. The efficiency of the plasma augmented melt probe of about 40%, and the yield of 1.33 cm3/kJ is approaching the performance of more refined concepts and is achieved with no mechanical moving parts. If the pulsed plasma melt probe can be configured to safely operate with onboard scientific equipment it may become a promising option for drilling on Mars or Europa where power is a scarce resource.