Close-up view of ExoMars Drill in action
Date: 08 July 2010
Copyright: Thales Alenia Space - Italia & SELEX Galileo
This photograph, which shows the Drill breadboard mounted on the ExoMars Rover vehicle breadboard, was taken during a series of tests that were performed at the premises of Thales Alenia Space (TAS-I) in January 2010. The purpose of these tests was to verify the performance of the Drill when installed on the Rover vehicle.
The tests included multiple drilling in 2-metre-deep columns of materials. The tuff layer in the centre of the container simulates a non-homogeneous rock (soft matrix with hard inclusions) and was one of several different materials with different mineralogical characteristics that have been selected as reference materials and used to evaluate and characterise the performance of the system. The reference materials included: gas-concrete, red brick, tuff, marble, olivine powder (to simulate regolith), and fine sand.
