Abstract Exploring the ice surface of Europa and other icy moons will be scientifically exciting, but very challenging for mobile autonomous robotics. This paper presents a new concept to address the challenge of moving across vacuum-exposed cryogenic ice terrains - a thermal pick that functions both as a thermal drill and an ice anchor. Earlier investigators demonstrated that cryogenic ice can be thermally drilled in simulated planetary conditions, but the efficiency was found to be a hindrance for power-limited systems. A rover on Europa may need to drill and anchor many times throughout the lifetime of the vehicle, so the primary focus of this work is reducing the energy cost of operation. Using the thermal drill as an anchor also adds a new requirement, maintaining the structural integrity of the ice. This work demonstrates a highly efficient (up to 50%) intermittent mode of operation for thermal drilling as well as an approach to avoiding degradation of the ice structure. This allows for anchoring strengths in excess of 130 ​N, which is the weight of 100 ​kg on Europa.

中文翻译：

---

用于冰冷月球稳定性和流动性的锚定热钻

摘要 探索木卫二和其他冰冷卫星的冰面在科学上是令人兴奋的，但对移动自主机器人来说却是非常具有挑战性的。本文提出了一个新概念，以解决在真空暴露的低温冰地形上移动的挑战 - 一种兼具热钻和冰锚功能的热镐。早期的研究人员证明，可以在模拟的行星条件下对低温冰进行热钻探，但发现效率是功率受限系统的一个障碍。欧罗巴上的漫游车在车辆的整个生命周期内可能需要多次钻孔和锚固，因此这项工作的主要重点是降低运营的能源成本。使用热钻作为锚还增加了一个新的要求，即保持冰的结构完整性。这项工作展示了一种高效（高达 50%）的热力钻井间歇操作模式，以及一种避免冰结构退化的方法。这允许锚定强度超过 130 N，这是 Europa 上 100 kg 的重量。