NASA Postdoctoral Program - Drill and Sample Handling Technology for Mars Research

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity focuses on multidisciplinary studies involving the development and field testing of drilling and sample handling systems and automation technologies for Mars exploration. NASA Ames, together with industry partners, leads space drilling technology development and has advanced both planetary drills and automation systems needed to operate them at significant lightspeed communication distances from Earth. Drilling is critical for accessing the Martian subsurface to sample ground ice and search for life, representing the best means to retrieve samples from regions that could harbor life now or in the past. The research also involves developing systems to access volatiles on the Moon and determine their abundance and vertical distribution. Specific systems under development include rotary and rotary percussive drills capable of reaching depths up to 10 meters, sample distribution systems that interface between drills and instruments, percussive penetrometers, and wireline drills with pneumatic cuttings removal. The fellowship is based at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, under the advisement of Dr. Brian Glass.