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European Space Agency

Press Release

How far can a dentist's drill go?

8 April 2003
 
When ESA's Mars Express reaches the Red Planet in December 2003,
there will be a drill on board its Beagle 2 lander. This drill will
dig into the surface to take samples of the Martian rocks. Who would
imagine that the creativity of an enthusiastic dentist is behind a
'cosmic' drill?
 
A few years ago, when scientists were busy with Mars Express and its
lander, engineers needed a precision rock corer and grinder for
Beagle 2. They also required a system to grip the rock powder firmly
to drop it into an analyser. About the same time, a Chinese dentist
called Dr. Ng visited ESTEC, ESA's establishment in the Netherlands,
looking for space applications for his high-tech inventions.

"Dr. Ng and his team came to ESTEC armed with a tremendous enthusiasm
but few impressive prototype instruments," says Agustin Chicarro,
Mars Express Project Scientist. "They asked for advice on how they
could get involved in a Mars mission."

Dr Ng and his colleagues had found the right people at the right
moment: engineers were designing Beagle 2, the lander for Mars
Express. The high-precision drill proposed by Dr Ng called a Micro
End Effector, originally weighed 900 grams. The Beagle 2 engineers
adapted it and made it lighter to fit on the spacecraft. They reduced
the weight to less than 400 grams and scaled down the energy
consumption to 2 Watts (less than the smallest light bulb).

Once on Mars, the head of the rock drill will roll over a small area
of the selected rock. The drill will then begin to penetrate up to
one centimetre into the rock and collect an uncontaminated rock
sample. A microlab located on Beagle's 'paw' will then examine it.
"If we are lucky, this could be the first human-made tool to
encounter an alien form of life," says an enthousiastic Dr Ng.

"Perhaps a jeweller could have designed a useful tool like that too,"
observes Chicarro. "All we need for ESA planetary exploration
missions are small, light instruments, just like the ones the Hong
Kong team provided."

A practising dentist in Hong Kong, Dr Ng never lost his boyhood
fascination for space. "I am a very persistent man," he says. "It
took me lots and lots of visits in more than 10 years to the space
agencies around the world to ensure my idea would go to Mars."

Dr Ng and his team have devised other tools for use in space also.
For example, they made a tool that could easily grip objects of any
shape and with sizes up to 20 centimetres, in a microgravity
environment. The MIR Russian space station used the tool in 1995.

Dr Ng thinks he has had another special gift: "In China, we have a
5000-year-long tradition of 'microgripping', thanks to the chopsticks
we use for eating. All I had to do was combine my professional
experience with this traditional skill!"

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