Development and Testing of a Lunar Prospecting Drill (LPD) to Search for Water-Ice

There are at least two approaches in searching for water-ice in lunar regolith: indirect and direct. In the indirect method, neutron spectrometer can be used to capture epithermal and thermal neutrons—signature of Hydrogen and hence possibly water. If a neutron spectrometer is integrated inside a drill string, as the drill penetrates subsurface it can determine water concentration at different layers. In the direct method, a sample is captured at depth and transferred to a Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) for analysis. The indirect method is simpler as it does not require sample transfer, however the direct method provides higher fidelity data. This paper focuses on the direct method. The Lunar Prospecting Drill (LPD) has been tested in frozen NU-LHT-2M with 5wt% water and in dry NU-LHT-3M. The drill captured sample in 10 cm intervals, called bites. The mass of each bite varied from 20-40 grams for 5wt% simulant and from 10-20 grams for dry simulant. The drill will next be tested at lunar-like conditions of low temperature and vacuum at NASA GRC.