Design of a screw-cone drill for lunar regolith drilling mission

For the lunar regolith drilling mission, a novel screw-cone drill is proposed and a theoretical model of chip removal performance of the screw-cone drill is established. Based on the model, the drill structural parameters are optimized. On that basis, the cutting parameters of the screw-cone drill is analyzed and the prediction model of drilling load is built based on the theory of passive earth pressure. The prediction model is well verified by the experimental results. The research results show that the screw-cone drill has a better performance of cuttings discharging compared with the linear blade drill. The research results would have an important reference value for drilling bit design for China's lunar exploration and sampling project.