Automated Mars drilling for “Icebreaker”

In order to look for organics and signs of past or extant life on Mars, it will be necessary to delve below and through the ice layers that stymied the Phoenix scoop. Automated drilling from a Phoenix-derived lander can retrieve specimens down to 1m depth, which can be transferred to on-deck instruments. This paper discusses the requirements, design concepts and some tradeoffs regarding the drill and drilling operations for the proposed NASA “Icebreaker” mission.