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Considerations on a suction drill for lunar surface drilling and sampling: I. Feasibility study

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Abstract

In this paper, we consider a drilling method, which might prove useful both for applications on the Moon and for drilling on Mars, Venus, or other planetary surfaces. It is based on the use of a cold gas flow for pumping fine-grained debris particles out of the borehole, after they have been pulverized by the bore crown. We present a basic design and demonstrate by a hydrodynamic calculation that such a system should work effectively even on an airless body like the Moon, where the driver gas has to be provided from the associated lander or rover, which acts as the bore platform.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung under its TRP project L317–N14.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Schmiedlstrasse 6, 8042, Graz, Austria

    Norbert I. Kömle

  2. The Hongkong Polytechnic University, Hongkong, China

    Peter Weiss & K. L. Yung

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  1. Norbert I. Kömle
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  2. Peter Weiss
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Correspondence to Norbert I. Kömle.

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Kömle, N.I., Weiss, P. & Yung, K.L. Considerations on a suction drill for lunar surface drilling and sampling: I. Feasibility study. Acta Geotech. 3, 201–214 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-008-0076-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-008-0076-x

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