Sample Acquisition from Hypothesized Surfaces – Surface Liberators

INSTITUTION

Arizona State University (ASU)

CLASS

Platinum Class (2025 – 2026)

STUDENT TEAM

ACADEMIC GUIDANCE

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The mission to 16-Psyche, a metal-rich asteroid, presents a unique challenge for planetary sampling: operators on Earth cannot respond in real time to drilling faults due to significant communication delays and limited power availability. To address this, developing a Fault-Tolerant Drill Power and Control System is critical. The main theme of this project is bounded autonomy: creating a benchtop prototype that intelligently monitors drill telemetry (current, temperature, and vibration) to autonomously detect faults, such as stalls or overheating, and recover without ground intervention.
This system bridges the gap between scientific mission goals and engineering implementation by demonstrating how a “quiet box” controller can protect hardware in a deep-space environment.

 

This work was created in partial fulfillment of the Arizona State University Capstone Course “EEE 488/9.” The work is a result of the Psyche Student Collaborations component of NASA’s Psyche Mission (https://psyche.ssl.berkeley.edu). “Psyche: A Journey to a Metal World” [Contract number NNM16AA09C] is part of the NASA Discovery Program mission to solar system targets. Trade names and trademarks of ASU and NASA are used in this work for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by Arizona State University or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ASU or NASA.