Drill tool Engineering Model, with Ma_Miss window
Date: 09 July 2010
Copyright: SELEX Galileo
This photograph, which shows the Drill tool Engineering Model with the Ma_Miss sapphire window and optical head, was taken during a series of drilling and sampling tests performed at the Centre of Space Studies and Activities (CISAS) of the University of Padova, Italy, in April 2008. The objective of this test campaign, which was carried out in Mars-like conditions, was to verify the drilling and sampling performance of the ExoMars Drill prototype.
The Ma_Miss instrument (Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies) is a spectrometer, developed by SELEX Galileo, to study the subsurface stratigraphy, to understand the distribution and state of water-related minerals, and to characterise the geophysical environment during Drill operations. A key component of the spectrometer is the optical head, which consists of an illumination prism and a sensory prism placed in the front part of the Drill tool and interfacing the wall of the drilled borehole via a very hard sapphire window.
The tests included the first functional verifications performed on Ma_Miss optical parts. In the photograph above, the lamp is lit and the light conveyed via optical fibre and optical prism through the sapphire window.
