Space Drill
vies for spot
on Mars mission
■ Sudbury drilling expertise
impresses NASA
NORCAT Manager of Prototype Development Dale Boucher with Space Drill.
Photo by STUDIO EUROPE
March 1, 2004 ■ Volume 1, Number 1 www.
sudburyminingsolutions.
com
BY NORM...
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Space Drill
vies for spot
on Mars mission
■ Sudbury drilling expertise
impresses NASA
NORCAT Manager of Prototype Development Dale Boucher with Space Drill.
Photo by STUDIO EUROPE
March 1, 2004 ■ Volume 1, Number 1 www.
sudburyminingsolutions.
com
BY NORM TOLLINSKY
T
he few millimetres of
rock “drilled” by the
Spirit rover on Mars
recently could be put to
shame by a Space Drill being
developed by Sudbury’s
Northern Centre for Advanced
Technology (NORCAT).
The NORCAT
Space Drill, which
could go to Mars
in 2009, is being
designed to drill
two metres (6.
5
feet) through the
surface of the planet in search of
water and evidence of life.
The National
Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA)
and the Canadian Space Agency
turned to NORCAT, a product
development and innovation
centre, several years ago to leverage Northern Ontario’s worldclass drilling expertise.
Two prototypes have already
been developed and successfully
tested - on Earth - but NASA still
has to confirm its plans for t
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