P052-03
SLUSH: Search for Life Using Submersible Heated drill

Friday, 11 December 2020: 17:38
Virtual
Boleslaw Mellerowicz1, Kris Zacny2, Joey Palmowski1, Leo Stolov1, Samuel M Howell3, Christophe Sotin4, Daneal Hale5, Seiichi Nagihara6, Lillian Ware7, Kevin P Hand8, Bethany L Ehlmann9, Michael Buchbinder1, Mike Tipton5, Benjamin Bradley1 and David Faris1, (1)Honeybee Robotics, Altadena, CA, United States, (2)Honeybee Robotics, Pasadena, United States, (3)University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States, (4)Jet Propulsion Laboratory-California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (5)Integrity Communications Solutions, Colorado Springs, United States, (6)Texas Tech Univ, Lubbock, TX, United States, (7)Honeybee Robotics, Altadena, United States, (8)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (9)California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Europa is a primary target in the search for past or present life because it is potentially geologically active and likely possesses a deep global ocean in contact with a rocky core underneath its outer ice shell. Galileo spacecraft observations and theoretical models predict that the ice shell is 3-30 km thick and overlays an ocean ~100 km deep.

To reach the subsurface ocean where life may be most prevalent, a probe would need to penetrate the ice shell while moving the excavated material aft. This can be achieved by melting the material (thermal penetration) and cutting the material (mechanical penetration). Mechanical systems break the icy material efficiently but transport ice chips inefficiently. Thermal systems have an effective chip removal approach but a power intensive ice-melting step. The Search for Life Using Submersible Heated (SLUSH) drill (Figure 1) is a hybrid thermo-mechanical probe that combines the most efficient aspects of these two techniques.

SLUSH is 5 m long, 57 cm diameter probe with a heated drill bit in front, anti-torque blades on the side, and several tether bays on top. The probe is partially flooded to achieve negative buoyancy. Critical subsystems are inside a pressure vessel.

SLUSH utilizes a mechanical drill to break the ice and heat from a reactor to partially melt the fragments, enabling the efficient transport of material behind the probe. The resulting slush behaves like liquid despite being partially frozen, significantly reducing the power required for melting the full volume of ice. Further, this approach allows it to penetrate ice with impurities or harder materials which may not be possible by melting alone. Once SLUSH passes through the top cryogenic ice and penetrates deeper into warmer ice, it can use a purely thermal approach to melt through this warmer ice without the need for mechanical cutting.

SLUSH incorporates the Kilopower reactor for both thermal and electrical needs. The fission reactor can be turned on/off and is self-moderating, significantly simplifying thermal management. The probe is physically connected to a surface lander by a communications tether, housed in several spool bays that are left behind in the ice once the spool is depleted. This allows each tether section to be purpose-designed and shortens the probe length as it descends, making penetration more efficient.

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