From NASA Ames

NASA has barely scratched the surface of Mars – literally. While past rovers have dug inches into the rusty soils of the Red Planet, NASA is testing out a drill that can go feet deep and operate autonomously with minimal human guidance. Probing that far down below the harsh Martian surface will reveal a world we’ve never seen up close before – one where scientists believe there’s a chance for life.

This month, NASA is putting this drill through its paces in the driest, most Mars-like place that exists on Earth – the Atacama Desert in Chile. This drill, developed in partnership with Honeybee Robotics, is attached to a rover carrying a suite of instruments. These tools can analyze the soil samples dug up by the rover and discover potential biosignatures of microbial life. This project, the Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies, or ARADS, is an important demonstration of NASA’s readiness to one day take these technologies to Mars on other missions beyond the upcoming Mars 2020.

“ARADS is all about preparing NASA to search for life on Mars,” said Brian Glass, principal investigator for the ARADS program at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “Developing the science instruments and robotics we’ll need is a big part of that, and so is figuring out how we actually run the mission. The best way to practice that is to go and do it here on Earth.”