TRIDENT Drill for VIPER and PRIME-1 Missions to the Moon

The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploration of New Terrains (TRIDENT) is an ice mining drill under development for two exploration/ISRU missions to the Moon: Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), and PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment). Both missions are targeting South Pole's volatile rich deposits. The primary goal of TRIDENT is to deliver volatile-rich samples from up 1 m depth to the lunar surface. Once on surface, the material would be analyzed by mass spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo) and/or the near infrared volatile spectrometer subsystem (NIRVSS). In addition to being tool for providing samples, TRIDENT is also an instrument. TRIDENT drilling power and penetration rate is used to determine regolith strength. TRIDENT's integrated heater and temperature sensors could measure downhole temperature and thermal conductivity. TRIDENT will also be able to provide bearing capacity of the top lunar surface as well as regolith's in situ density to 1 m depth.