Deep drilling and sampling via the wireline auto-gopher driven by piezoelectric percussive actuator and EM rotary motor

Yoseph Bar-Cohen; Mircea Badescu; Stewart Sherrit; Kris Zacny; Gale L. Paulsen; Luther Beegle; Xiaoqi Bao

doi:10.1117/12.914257

3 April 2012 Deep drilling and sampling via the wireline auto-gopher driven by piezoelectric percussive actuator and EM rotary motor

Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Mircea Badescu, Stewart Sherrit, Kris Zacny, Gale L. Paulsen, Luther Beegle, Xiaoqi Bao

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8345, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2012; 83452A (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.914257
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2012, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The ability to penetrate subsurfaces and perform sample acquisition at depths of meters is critical for future NASA in-situ exploration missions to bodies in the solar system, including Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. A corer/sampler was developed with the goal of acquiring pristine samples by reaching depths on Mars beyond the oxidized and sterilized zone. The developed rotary-hammering coring drill, called Auto-Gopher, employs a piezoelectric actuated percussive mechanism for breaking formations and an electric motor rotates the bit to remove the powdered cuttings. This sampler is a wireline drill that is incorporated with an inchworm mechanism allowing thru cyclic coring and core removal to reach great depths. The penetration rate is optimized by simultaneously activating the percussive and rotary motions of the Auto-Gopher. The percussive mechanism is based on the Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer (USDC) mechanism, which is driven by a piezoelectric stack, demonstrated to require low axial preload. The Auto-Gopher has been produced taking into account the lessons learned from the development of the Ultrasonic/Sonic Gopher that was designed as a percussive ice drill and was demonstrated in Antarctica in 2005 to reach about 2 meters deep. A field demonstration of the Auto-Gopher is currently being planned with the objective of reaching as deep as 3 to 5 meters in tufa formation.

Citation Download Citation

Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Mircea Badescu, Stewart Sherrit, Kris Zacny, Gale L. Paulsen, Luther Beegle, and Xiaoqi Bao "Deep drilling and sampling via the wireline auto-gopher driven by piezoelectric percussive actuator and EM rotary motor", Proc. SPIE 8345, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2012, 83452A (3 April 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.914257

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