EXOMARS DRILL pre-EQM INTEGRATION AND PRELIMINARY QUALIFICATION CAMPAIGN

After completion of a breadboarding and test phase on the key components and assemblies of the ExoMars Drill, a new model, named Drill pre-EQM, more representative of the final flight design, has been integrated. Such model includes both parts that are already at qualification level (namely the structure and the mechanics) and parts at commercial level that later on will be upgraded to EQM level (e.g. the actuators). Meanwhile, an engineering model of the complete control electronics has also been integrated, and the first version of the control software (flight version) has been released. The pre-EQM interfaced with the EM control electronics is being subject to a thorough test campaign in these months. This campaign includes sample acquisition of Mars-analogue material in laboratory and in Mars-like conditions, with the double objective of getting confirmation of the key drilling parameters (such as needed resources in terms of power and thrust, advancing speed, amount of collected material, etc.) and of verifying the operability and timelines of the integrated Drill HW - Control Electronics - Flight Software. Tests will be conducted on the enlarged variety of soil materials already used to characterize the design in last phase. To support the environmental test campaign, a dedicated facility has been designed and built in order to reproduce Mars-Like conditions in terms of temperatures, atmospheric composition and pressure. Such unique facility has been realized in order to allow complete drill operations down to two meters depth.