Rock Grinding on Mars With the USDC

NASA Ames Research Center Exobiology Engineering, 2003-04

Liaison(s): David Blake
Advisor(s): Joseph King
Students(s): Diana Warden (PM), Nick Reddy, Lisa Jacobs, Emily Ross, Koji Tatsuta (exch.)

The Clinic team has been asked to develop a device that may be included on the Mars 2009 rover. The device receives a sample of rocks with a maximum diameter of 2 mm, and must reduce the size of the rock particles to 0.05 mm in diameter or smaller while controlling contamination. At the request of NASA Ames Research Center, particle size reduction has been accomplished using the Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer.