Bolek’s time in Antarctica is just about up. Today, he flies out to NZ. He sent us a picture of the send-off committee at the runway. This has been a successful field test from every perspective – the technical performance, the science, and the education and public outreach.
Safe home, Bolek.
Antarctic Send-off
Bolek is back! After a few days in University Valley, he is back in the relative comfort of McMurdo. He’s preparing for the trip home, but sent us some pictures from the Valley:
Leaving McMurdo
Departure from McMurdo Station on a Bell 212 helicopter on Jan 22 for University Valley. University Valley is part of a larger area to the West of McMurdo Station known as the Dry Valleys, approximately 1 hour away. Wayne, Alfonso and Dennis had arrived about 1.5 weeks earlier and were almost done acquiring core samples by the time we arrived. We appreciated the fact that camp was already set up when we got there.
The View
This is the view when looking towards the mouth of University Valley from our camp. Radio communication with McMurdo Station was possible thanks to the repeater found on Aztec Mountain (one of the mountains in the background)
Head of the Valley
The head of the valley has a small glacier. The camp was located not far from it, a couple of hundred meters away. The darker areas in the wall are volcanic dolorite rock which is embedded in the sedimentary sandstone layers.
Our Camp in University Valley
The large long tents are the kitchen (left) and work (right) tents and the Scott tent (dome like one) was used as the rest room. Quality time was spent mostly in the kitchen and Scott tents!
Kitchen Tent
The kitchen tent was a bit messy but still a cosy place to have a meal together. Every evening we spoiled ourselves for dinner which included dishes like salmon, steak, burgers, shrimp paella and fruit turnovers for dessert! Water was only used for drinking. Dishes had to be wiped.
Beautiful Day
The IceBreaker drill in action! We drilled mostly in camp but also did some drilling at another location 150 m down the valley which was of scientific interest.
Autonomous Drilling
Drilling was done mostly autonomously, which meant we could monitor the drill from within the work tent.
Coring with the Science Drill
Even though most of the coring was completed by the time the rest of the group arrived, some of us still wanted to have a go at it.
Sling Load, ready for pickup
Pulling down camp involved preparing sling loads for the helicopter to pick up.
Polygons
Polygons as seen from the helicopter are common in this area. They form because the ice cemented ground is continuously contracting and expanding which causes it to form these shapes. Polygons have been also found at the Phoenix landing site on Mars.
Success! We finished drilling at Cape Armitage reaching a total depth of 1.2 m in two holes (90 cm + 30 cm). We were extremely exhausted since we finished drilling at 3am in the morning, but very satisfied. Even though the temperature did not drop below -10C a windchill making it feel like -20C .
We had no problems drilling, a few times we hit a hard rock so it took a while for IB to break through – increasing the percussion rate from 800 bpm to over 900 bpm helped.
The same day we packed the drill and delivered all the boxes to helops (short for helicopter operations) for our flight out to University Valley scheduled for 10am tomorrow.
In the mean time we got a new layer of snow. Check out McMurdo’s fresh look…
This week we are having Education & Public Outreach (EPO) sessions in various schools across the country. On Monday we met virtually with kids from Arizona, we spent Tuesday in New York and today we skyped with kids from Pasadena. It was an unforgettable experience which me and my colleges enjoyed very much. Kids were able to operate the drill via ‘GoToMyPC’ software and could see the outcome of their actions via Skype.
First, we explained why we went to Antarctica. After that we showed them around, talked about the drill, how it operates and why it is so important for. Then came the fun part. Kids were able to send commands directly to the drill and see it respond. It was a great experience for them but also a unique test for the drill which was passed successfully.
We connected with two schools and all the kids did great. They not only listened but also asked questions like: “How long does it take to build this type of a drill”, ” How do we transport it to Antarctica”, “If we like it here” and of course “What’s the temperature”.
And this is what it looked like on our side
We hope kids enjoyed this one of a kind experience. We surely did. I am already looking forward to doing it again.
Upon arriving at McMurdo and having about 6 hours of sleep (probably half the time we really needed) we were delegated to complete Happy Camper Training, course that is supposed to teach you how to survive in this harsh environment when you are by yourself or with a small group of people.
One of our tasks was to build a snow wall to protect the camp from strong Southerly winds. As you can see, team work is an answer to everything.
One of the campers is shoveling snow to build a trench to sleep in for the “night”.. In the back you can see Mt Erebus, situated on Ross Island soaring to 12,448 ft. It is the most southerly volcano on Earth and is currently active!
Now that was a real surprise for me. You can still see Scott’s tents which are used today because are very sturdy and capable of withstanding very strong winds – take that North Face!
So we made it to Antarctica, completed Happy Camper Training and are ready to do some work. I will keep you updated on that. Till next time!
Atlast! Touch down on the Ross Sea Ice Shelf after landing with the C130.. As you can see, the fact that it’s summer time doesn’t really bother the snow and ice. So we landed but are not there yet. We are about 3 hours away from the McMurdo station…
…and this is what will take us there: IVAN – the terra bus :).
Part the team (From right: Wayne Pollard, Dennis Laccelle, and myself)
We are finally leaving for Antarctica. Hopefully this time we will make it – this is our second attempt as we were turned back halfway yesterday due to some engine-related mechanical issues. Wish us luck!
On our way to Antarctica we had to stop at New Zealand. This distant paradise proved to be a great place to recharge your solar batteries before heading to the land of ice.
Biking along the coast line is always fun. Whenever you get too hot, just jump into the cool ocean. New Zealand is perfect for that!
Over the past several weeks we’ve been preparing for a field test of a next-generation drill, called the Auto-Gopher. I’m happy to say that it’s been a success, and paves the way for future planetary missions to Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, among other destinations.
We’re especially excited about this drill because it’s a wire-line design. The drill itself is suspended on a tether, so to reach deeper operators just need to pay out more cable. This enables drilling at great depths, beyond the reach of traditional drills or even telescoping architectures.
The team from Honeybee joined forces with engineers and scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Southern California to test the drill at the US Gypsum Company gypsum quarry outside Salton Sea, CA. This site offers two advantages: first, it’s a good analog for surface operations on other planets because gypsum strength is similar to that of water-ice at low temperature. Second, it’s well within reach from our Pasadena office, offering flexibility to field test the drill without traveling all the way to a glacier. Gypsum has also been found on Mars.
Auto-Gopher is an ultrasonic-rotary drill, which uses vibrations to hammer the bit through rock formations. The ultrasonic/percussive component, provided by collaborators from NASA JPL, allowed faster penetration rates and in turn lower overall drilling energy. The drill captures core samples every 100mm, each of which is 57mm in diameter. During operations, every 100 mm the system pulls the drill out and captures a core sample for later analysis.
During the course of just over 2 days, we reached our target depth of 3m and acquired ~99% of cores. The penetration rate was over 1 meter per hour, and it took a bit over 10 hours to lift and lower the drill. We captured 32 cores in total, which, if it were from Mars or another spot in the solar system, would provide an invaluable source of information. In all, aside from a few minor issues, including a loose wire, the drilling progressed smoothly from start to finish.
In all this demonstration was a major step in proving wireline drilling technology for future planetary missions. We have our eye on Mars, for obvious reasons. But Europa and Enceladus are also top targets because both moons appear to have extensive water ice on the surface and liquid water underneath. For any mission, the idea is to target ice deposits on these planetary bodies because boreholes in ice are less likely to collapse and trap the drill in a hole.
This project has been 4 years in the making, supported by the NASA Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program. We’re thankful for their support and hope to see this kind of system beyond Earth before long!
Down the hole! Here, the drill is approximately 3 meters subsurface. As you can see, the drill itself is supported by a tether, and doesn’t require the kind of infrastructure that a traditional 3-meter drill would rely upon.
Here’s the Auto-Gopher drill, following the testing process, with three meters of core samples at its base.
A great team from NASA JPL, USC and Honeybee Robotics — thanks to everyone for your contributions to a successful field test. From left to right: Gale Paulsen, Bolek Mellerowicz, Ola Rzepiejwska (Honeybee Robotics), Bill Abbey, Luther Beegle, Stewart Sherrit, Jae Lee (NASA JPL), Yadi Ibarra (USC), Mircea Badescu (NASA JPL), Kris Zacny (Honeybee Robotics). Two team members missing from this picture are Yosi Bar-Cohen from NASA JPL and Frank Corsetti from USC.
Greetings from Devon Island, Canada! I’m here in the Haughton Crater testing our Ice Breaker drill using automation software developed by NASA Ames’ Brian Glass. In a real-world deployment, the drill would be operating on another planet, completely out of reach from human help. So, it needs to be as reliable as possible, and operate autonomously despite potentially hitting obstacles that co
uld challenge its operation. Dr. Glass is writing automation software that enables the drill to learn from operational challenges, so that it can identify faults and recover from them.
This is all a lead-up to a big trip down to Antarctica in about six months, where we’ll test the drill in a Mars analog environment — dry, cold, and hard conditions.
Also on the mission is Arwen Dave, who is testing a scoop deployed from a platform that represents a Phoenix-sized lander.
Honeybee Robotics Exploration Technology Group engineers and builds terrestrial and extraterrestrial drilling, excavation, and geotechnical systems, as well as sample acquisition, transfer and processing technologies. Because these systems are autonomous, smart, low power, light-weight, and low-mass, they have application not only in space, but here on earth in mining and petroleum applications.
