![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/videos\/2016\/05\/testing_lunar_ice_drill_design\/15983428-1-eng-GB\/Testing_lunar_ice_drill_design_small.jpg\")
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\nA drill designed to penetrate 1 to 2 m into the lunar surface is envisaged by ESA to fly to the Moon\u2019s south pole on Russia\u2019s Luna-27 lander in 2020.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt is an essential part of a science and exploration package being developed to reach, extract and analyse samples from beneath the surface in the Moon\u2019s south polar region,\u201d explains lunar exploration systems engineer Richard Fisackerly.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis region is of great interest to lunar researchers and explorers because the low angle of the Sun on the horizon leads to areas of partial or even complete shadow. These shadowed areas and permanently dark crater floors, where sunlight never reaches, are believed to hide water ice and other frozen volatiles.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nDeveloped by Finemeccania in Nerviano, Italy, the drill would first penetrate into the frozen regolith and then deliver the samples to a chemical laboratory, its development led by the Open University in the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe loud noise heard during this test is not the drill itself but a feed of liquid nitrogen used to maintain the temperature of the lunar soil simulant being drilled down through at -140C. This cold temperature is typical of the expected landing site of Luna-27, however the permanently shadowed areas of the Moon are known to be even colder, down to -240C.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe drill system plus laboratory are collectively known as Prospect: Platform for Resource Observation and in-Situ Prospecting in support of Exploration, Commercial exploitation & Transportation.\n<\/p>\n
\nProspect is one of the packages being developed by ESA for flight to the Moon as part of cooperation on Russia\u2019s lunar programme. Pilot \u2013 Precise Intelligent Landing using On-board Technology \u2013 is an autonomous precision landing system incorporating \u2018laser radar\u2019 lidar for hazard detection and avoidance.\n<\/p>\n
\nThese packages are being developed by ESA\u2019s Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration, and their full flight implementation shall be proposed for approval by ESA\u2019s Council of European Ministers in December 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\nA drill designed to penetrate 1 to 2 m into the lunar surface is envisaged by ESA to fly to the Moon’s south pole on Russia’s Luna-27 lander in 2020.\n<\/p>\n
\n“It is an essential part of a science and exploration package being developed to reach, extract and analyse samples from beneath the surface in the Moon’s south polar region,” explains lunar exploration systems engineer Richard Fisackerly.\n<\/p>\n
\n“This region is of great interest to lunar researchers and explorers because the low angle of the Sun on the horizon leads to areas of partial or even complete shadow. These shadowed areas and permanently dark crater floors, where sunlight never reaches, are believed to hide water ice and other frozen volatiles.”\n<\/p>\n
\nDeveloped by Finemeccania in Nerviano, Italy, the drill would first penetrate into the frozen regolith and then deliver the samples to a chemical laboratory, its development led by the Open University in the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe loud noise heard during this test is not the drill itself but a feed of liquid nitrogen used to maintain the temperature of the lunar soil simulant being drilled down through at -140C. This cold temperature is typical of the expected landing site of Luna-27, however the permanently shadowed areas of the Moon are known to be even colder, down to -240C.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe drill system plus laboratory are collectively known as Prospect: Platform for Resource Observation and in-Situ Prospecting in support of Exploration, Commercial exploitation & Transportation.\n<\/p>\n
\nProspect is one of the packages being developed by ESA for flight to the Moon as part of cooperation on Russia’s lunar programme. Pilot – Precise Intelligent Landing using On-board Technology – is an autonomous precision landing system incorporating ‘laser radar’ lidar for hazard detection and avoidance.\n<\/p>\n
\nThese packages are being developed by ESA’s Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration, and their full flight implementation shall be proposed for approval by ESA’s Council of European Ministers in December 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241014,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241013\/revisions\/241014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}