It has been fifty years since Apollo 15 took off from Kennedy Space Center. Missions like these gave chance the world to study our neighbor satellite with more sophisticated instruments like Apollo Lunar Surface Drill and Lunar Roving Vehicle. The passengers were Commander David R. Scott and James B. Irwin.
After landing on the Moon Scoot and Irwin would use ALSD where they will set up scientific instruments and study geology studies to explore the composition of the Moon and discover history.
Once again NASA is going back to the Moon as part of agency’s mission and has a new drill headed to lunar surface. The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT) will be used to locate ice and other resources on the Moon.
“Honeybee Robotics designed the TRIDENT drill for NASA to sample lunar regolith,” said Amy Eichenbaum, who is the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1)’s deputy project manager. With the TRIDENT technology the physical properties of the moon can be studied properly. TRIDENT is a rotary drill and it does not need astronauts to operate manually.
It will be the first time NASA will be capable to study geology from beneath the surface. It will be drilled in a site which has possibility to have water. It can reach around 3 feet deep and bring samples.
Apollo 15 landed near Hadley Rille which is a long, deep channel. NASA has previously detected water there from space. Gathering more accurate data requires PRIME-1, like ALSD, to land and drill into the surface to examine what is there.After a year of PRIME-1 mission NASA is planning to send exploratory rover named Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover also calle VIPER. VIPER will carry TRIDENT drill which is a robot that can study the Moon from its depths. It will explore different sites on the south pole of moon for 100 days.
PRIME-1 and VIPER will build upon the legacy of Apollo 15 by using new technology. With newer technology staying on Moon can be longer. If water is found in Moon the civilization can be possible. With these drilling technologies there can be sustainable exploration of the moon.
