Diamond drilling on Mars

In February 2004, history was made when a specially designed diamond tool made the first of many drilling operations on the surface of Mars as part of NASA's latest mission to uncover the secrets of the planet.
NASA's twin 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers, which are exploring the surface of the planet, are equipped with the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) designed, developed, and operated by Honeybee Robotics (New York City, USA).

The RAT (pictured below) is a robotically-controlled abrasion tool measuring around 7 cm (2.7 inches) in diameter and 10 cm long (4 inches), whose primary purpose is to remove dust and weathering rind from Martian rocks to reveal fresh underlying features.

On Friday, 6th February, 2004, Spirit employed its RAT equipped with a diamond drill bit to drill the first exploratory hole on a rock nicknamed Adirondack. The three-hour procedure resulted in a hole 45 mm in diameter and 2.7 mm in depth. By taking readings on both the interior and the surface of the rock, scientists hope to gain a better understanding of its history.

Cline Innovations (Sterling, MA, USA) served as a consultant on the design of the diamond-machining component used on the RAT. After testing several diamond grit, polycrystalline diamond, and single-crystal diamond designs, a resin-bonded diamond bit was found to perform best in test rock including basalt and limestone.

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