NASA selects Moon's Shackleton crater for first drilling experiment in 2022

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Wednesday, November 3, announced that it has chosen the 'Shackleton crater', as the location site for the first lunar drill. The location has been selected in agreement with Intuitive Machines, an agency partner for commercial Moon deliveries after months of assessment by the agency's engineers and scientists. According to the agency, the mining experiment, attached to a robotic lander is scheduled for departure to the Moon in late 2022.

Could the Shackleton crater have ice below?

As per the data produced by the spacecraft orbiting the Moon, the selected location called the “Shackleton connecting ridge”, could have ice below its surface. This location was finalised after experts from NASA, Arizona State University, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Nokia, and Intuitive Machines created “ice-mining” maps of the lunar surface using lunar remote sensing data. 

Explaining their plan, the agency revealed that the Shackleton crater offers the best conditions for a 10-day mission. The area receives sufficient sunlight to power a lander along with a clear line of sight to Earth for constant communications. It is also close to a small crater, which is ideal for a robotic excursion. The driller, named Polar Resources Ice-Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) consists of the drill paired with a mass spectrometer and a Nokia 4G/LTE communications network. PRIME-1 will be permanently attached to the Nova-C lander, developed by Intuitive Machines, which also has a deployable hopper robot attached to it. 

Mission Profile

Soon after NASA ensures a safe landing of the lander, the PRIME-1 drill, known as The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT), will attempt to drill up to three feet deep, extract lunar soil called regolith and deposit it on the surface for water analysis. In the process, PRIME-1’s other instrument, the Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo), will measure volatile gases that readily escape from the material excavated by TRIDENT. Additionally, Nokia will set out to test its space-hardened 4G/LTE network while PRIME-1 investigates the resources below the lunar surface. 

NASA says that the advancement of these types of technologies is critical to establishing a robust, long-term presence in deep space, including at the Moon as part of the agency’s Artemis missions. Simply operating and drilling into the tough lunar surface will provide valuable insight to engineers for future lunar missions, such as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, mission, which is slated to land at the lunar South Pole in late 2023.

Image: NASA