Take a walk through the Tools and Our World zone and you will notice a life-size digital image of an astronaut removing core samples from the Moon’s surface.
Learning what materials made up the Moon’s layered surface and how they got there was a crucial part of Apollo, the NASA programme that resulted in American astronauts making eleven exploratory space flights and landings. To answer these vital questions, scientists had to develop the right tool to extract samples from beneath its surface. Enter the Apollo Lunar Surface Drill (ALSD).
The ALSD is a handheld, battery-powered rotary-percussive drill, capable of removing core samples of soil and rock from three metres below the lunar surface. With a powerhead built by Stanley Black & Decker, the ALSD used a combined motion that hammered a rotating drill bit into the surface to make a hole.
It debuted in 1971 on Apollo 15, alongside the Lunar Roving Vehicle. Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin landed near the Hadley Rille, a deep gorge in the Moon’s surface. They spent nearly 70 hours analysing its geography using the ALSD and other scientific instruments. It proved a valuable tool and was taken on two more Apollo missions, building up our now-comprehensive understanding of lunar geology.
Image: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Analysis of lunar rocks taken from these missions has shown past volcanic activity, helping date the Moon’s volcanic timeline. The lunar surface, marked by impact craters from asteroids and comets, offered information about the frequency and intensity of these collision events. And later analyses has hinted at the presence of trace amounts of water molecules, challenging past assumptions about the Moon’s dryness.
The lunar drill is a testament to humanity’s inventiveness through skills. Now, 60 years later, NASA is returning to the Moon with a new drill. The Artemis missions hope to locate lunar ice and other resources, and the spaceflight teams will be taking the ice-mining drill, TRIDENT, with them. Like the ALSD, it is a rotary-percussive drill but does not need to be operated manually.
The success of the ALSD shows that tools are the foundation of human progress and that human skill will always be interwoven with exploration and discovery.