Long Reach Sampling For Ocean Worlds

Reaching beyond the immediate vicinity of a lander to place instruments or collect samples on ocean world bodies has many benefits. These include: an order-of-magnitude or more increase in the area and consequent choices for accessing samples or making observations compared to past lander-based manipulator systems, the ability to deploy samplers and instruments over the extreme topography expected on ocean worlds, and accessing crevasses and vents from a safe distance. We have developed prototypes of concepts for long reach sampling and for deploying instruments and sampling systems on ocean worlds. In the paper, we describe a self-righting system to anchor and collect samples up to 20 cm below the surface and two options for sampler or instrument deployment at distances greater than 10m from a lander. The concepts and results from tests on prototypes are described in the paper.