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Sudbury company develops extraterrestrial space drill

A Sudbury company has landed a contract with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to build a combination drill and rotary multi-purpose tool that is essentially a space-age “Swiss Army Knife.
Deltion
Sudbury’s Deltion Innovations has been working on extraterrestrial space vehicles, like this one shown, for space agencies for more than 15 years.

A Sudbury company has landed a contract with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to build a combination drill and rotary multi-purpose tool that is essentially a space-age “Swiss Army Knife.”

The federal department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development has granted the Canadian Space Agency $700,000 to fund projects like Deltion Innovations' Percussive and Rotary Multi-Purpose Tool, or PROMPT.

The tool will be able to drill into the moon or Mars at small depths – around 10 centimetres – to collect samples, and will also be able to complete the attachment and removal of screws and bolts in robotic construction, maintenance and repair tasks.

It costs around $250,000 to transport just one kilogram of material to the moon, and around $1 million to bring the same amount of material to Mars.

A lightweight robotic tool like PROMPT means organizations like NASA can maximize space by building structures at surface, and transporting everything in pieces.

In addition to its light weight and multiple uses, the tool will need to withstand extreme conditions.

“Where they're looking to set up mining on the moon the ground temperature is -150 C,” said Deltion Innovations CEO Dale Boucher. “Once you get into the sunlight, because there's no atmosphere, the temperature on the surface goes to 150 C.”

The device would also be subject to corrosive dust, cosmic radiation and would have to work in a low-gravity environment.

Boucher said the CSA has approved the concept for the tool. The next step is for Deltion to present a more detailed design, and then produce that design.

If all goes according to plan, Deltion could be testing its PROMPT prototype by Christmas.

A prototype of the drill was not on display at an April 6 press conference held in Sudbury.

Deltion is subcontracting with two Ontario companies, Kanata’s Neptec Design Group and Atlas Copco in North Bay, to work on the project.

Deltion is a mining equipment design company based in the Sudbury suburb of Capreol.

The company has been working on a regular basis with the Canadian Space Agency and NASA on the development of the drilling technology on the RESOLVE project for the Lunar Resource Prospector Mission scheduled for 2018.

Its speciality is developing small, efficient and light-weight and autonomous mining vehicles capable of working in extreme terrestrial or planetary environment.