Drilling Mechanism of Autonomous Burrowing Robot for Lunar Subsurface Exploration

Lunar and planetary subsurface exploration is of considerable significance. The authors have studied the strategies for subsurface excavation and propul-sion for the development of a lunar subsurface ex-plorer. The authors have proposed an autonomous robotic explorer which can burrow into the soils. Based on the strategies the authors have already con-sidered, this paper especially focuses on the excava-tion mechanism of a robotic system for near-future lu-nar subsurface exploration. The main objective of the proposed robot is to bury a scientific observation in-strument like a long-term seismometer under the lunar surface, which is covered with very compacted lunar regolith. Therefore, an efficient excavation mechanism is required. In this paper, the authors propose a new screw drilling system with double rotation, which is called N-RDM (Non-Reaction Drilling Mechanism). Through some experiments and analyses, this paper discusses the feasibility and effectiveness for the pro-posal of a burrowing robot system.