A team of engineers are preparing to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the hull of the first robotic lunar rover from NASA, VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover).
TRIDENT, designed and developed by engineers at Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California, is the fourth and final science instrument to be installed on VIPER. NASA engineers have already successfully integrated three other VIPER scientific instruments into the rover. These include MSOLO (mass spectrometer for observing lunar operations), NIRVSS (Near Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System) and NSS (Neutron Spectrometer System).
Shortly after TRIDENT was integrated into a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team also successfully tested its ability to power up, release the locks that hold the drill in place during launch, and submerge to a full depth of more than three feet (one meter), perform impact drilling and return to the stowed position inside the rover.
TRIDENT will excavate soil from beneath the surface of the Moon using a rotary hammer drill — meaning it simultaneously rotates to hit the soil and hammers to fragment solid material for more energy-efficient drilling. In addition to being able to measure the strength and compaction of the lunar soil, the drill is also equipped with a temperature sensor to take readings below the surface.
VIPER will be launched to the Moon aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. It will reach its destination at Mons Mouton near the south pole of the Moon. Scientists will work with these four instruments to better understand the origins of water and other resources on the moon, which could aid human exploration as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign.
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