As part of its current Mars mission 🚀. NASA is coring solid rock on Mars and the coring equipment specs are out of this world !
Designed for the rigors of Mars the Preserverence rover has an impressive amount of coring equipment on board. The coring samples are planned to return to Earth in 2031.
The turret coring drill will cut intact rock cores, and they’ll be placed in sample tubes via a complex storage system. The turret contains the coring tool, a rotary-percussive device designed to acquire rock core and regolith samples.
After the sample is collected, the robotic arm places the tube into the second robot of the Sample Caching System: the bit carousel. Looking like a small flying saucer that is embedded in the front of the rover, the bit carousel stores empty drill bits and provides them to the corer on the turret.
Once a sample has been taken by the corer, the bit carousel transfers bits containing filled sample tubes from the corer into the belly of the rover. Where they will stay until the rover will return in 2031!
Specs: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/mars_2020/launch/mission/spacecraft/perseverance_rover/
Coring Equipment: https://youtu.be/8Bz38yW0ajI
Landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUqsH5y1j1M&feature=youtu.be
Core Manufacturer: https://www.honeybeerobotics.com/
