Autonomous Tethered Corer for Deep Drilling

UTD proposes to develop a lightweight, tethered autonomous small diameter core drill capable of reaching 200 m in depth, and greater, and able to extract core samples for the determination of water and/or biological life forms. The significance of this research is the enabling of exploration for water on Mars and exploration of other planetary bodies (as well as comets and asteroids). The intent is to keep the design SIMPLE. It is the express intent of the design process for this program to focus on maintaining a minimum number of moving parts. The core barrel is specially designed to cut the core hole, transmit fines to a compartment in its topmost section, capture the core and serve as a bailing bucket for removal to the surface. A cam based anchor system is used to maintain reaction force down-hole, and a screw ram is used for creating weight on bit. Total system mass for a 200 m depth system is expected to be on the order of 40 kg, requiring 200-300 watt-hrs of power per meter advance in most rock formations.