The Vibration of Exploration

Patrick Harkness, from the University of Glasgow, will describe the enabling research and technical architectures of the high frequency vibration-enabled planetary surface exploration tools being developed within the Space Glasgow Research Cluster. Ultrasonic vibration for soil penetration, ultrasonic percussion for rock drilling, ultrasonic polishing for in-situ sample inspection and ultrasonic welding for sample containerisation – maybe for Ar-Ar dating on Mars, or perhaps even secure return to Earth – will be discussed in the context of current activities.

Looking to the future, we will also discuss some new ideas for data fusion between percussive systems and seismometers, all of which could help us build a Martian 'sonar' system for a minimum of effort.

Please do come along to share some ideas!