Successfully completed the space qualification tests of the auger made by Leonardo at the Nerviano (Milan) plant for the ExoMars 2020 Mission. The announcement comes at the presentation of the exhibition "Marte. Close Encounters with the Red Planet ", from tomorrow until June 3 at the National Museum of Science and Technology of Milan.
The tests of the instrument developed by Leonardo, which lasted four months, were held at the laboratories of the CISAS (Center of the University of Studies and Space Activities "Giuseppe Colombo") of Padua. In a special room set up for the occasion, operations in the Martian environment were simulated: rocky soil, temperatures between -100 ° C and + 35 ° C and an atmosphere of carbon dioxide at a pressure of 5-10 millibar.
The auger has proved to be ready to carry out its mission aboard the ExoMars Rover, when it will look for traces of life, present or past, digging up to 2 meters below the Red Planet soil. Only at this depth, in fact, biological activities are not destroyed by cosmic radiations, and it is therefore possible to find evidence of their existence.
The ExoMars auger is a true technological jewel. With a power of 80 watt (a fifth compared to home use drills), it will pierce the soil with a polycrystalline diamond tip that will generate a hole of 25 millimeters in diameter. Collect samples of Martian subsoil, and then distribute them to the analytical laboratory that will examine them in detail.
An 1: 1 scale model of the instrument, with the details of its interior, robotized and fully automatic, is on display in the exhibition "Mars. Close encounters with the Red Planet ".
The initiative is promoted by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MIBACT) and Leonardo da Vinci National Science and Technology Museum, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, INAF, Leonardo, Thales Alenia Space and National Geographic.
