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descriptionThis is my senior design project, which is geared towards NASA's BIG Idea Challenge. The idea is to design a compact water ice sample collection mechanism from the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the moon. The design is heavily driven by the size, mass and power constraints that are associated with the payload that can be mounted on the CLPS lander, as well as the operational environment of the PSRs.

» » Design a telescopic drill mechanism for coring water-ice samples from meter deep on the permanently shadowed region of the Moon
» Develop thermal, force and torque sensing abilities of the drill to record geotechnical parameters of the lunar regolith at varying depths and create a digital profile of the regolith composition
» Model feedback control for dual motors to sync the pitch of linear actuation with the rotation of the drill bit using minimum power. Employ machine learning to regulate motor speeds for safe drilling practice under varying regolith density and to ensure drill operational temperature remains under 107 kelvins to avoid sublimation of water sample
» Construct a test fixture to conduct extensive stress and thermal analysis of the drill mechanism under simulated lunar permanently shadowed region environment