Redwater combines the two technologies into one: IT uses the CT approach to create a hole (figure 1). Once the hole is made, the coiled tubing is left in the hole and used as conduit for water…

Honeybee Robotics, LTD. was awarded a firm fixed price contract valued at $3,924,956 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center to deliver the Redwater system. The Redwater system combines coiled tubing and computed tomography technologies to drill holes in ice on Mars and extract water for in-situ resource utilization. It will use solar panels and a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator for power and heating. The system is designed to melt surrounding ice using downhole heaters once a hole is drilled, pumping melted water to the surface through the heated coiled tubing. No set-aside designation was used for this contract, which is scheduled for completion in October 2023 and supports NASA's goals of enabling sustainable exploration of Mars through utilizing indigenous resources.

Redwater combines the two technologies into one: IT uses the CT approach to create a hole (figure 1). Once the hole is made, the coiled tubing is left in the hole and used as conduit for water extraction. The BHA contains a rotary-percussive drill subsystem (similar to the one used in honeybee robotics deep DRILL3), a downhole pump, and heaters. The tube houses an insulated and heated hose as well as wires for downhole motors and heaters. During drilling, compressed gas is send downhole through the hose. The gas escapes through the annual space between the tube and borehole wall and removes chips that can be collected and analyzed for science. Upon reaching an ICE layer, the drill continues for another 3 m and then stops advancing forward, but the bit continuous spinning. Heaters are turned on to melt the surrounding ICE. Once ICE starts to melt, the peristaltic pump starts pumping a fraction of the melted water up the same hose that was used for the compressed gas, and into a storage tank on the surface via a 3-way heated valve (valve switches between the gas tank and water tank). The remaining water passes through a downhole heater and is pumped into the rotating bit for water jetting this continuous stirring of water and injection of hot water speeds up the melting process. After melting a section of ICE, the CT is reactivated to drill further and the melting process continues. Since atmospheric pressure at arcadia planitia is above the triple point of water, liquid water can exist. However, IT is unstable and can boil off very quickly. For this reason, IT would be desirable to seal off the hole. This can be achieved via active means (a packer can expand in a hole and seal the annular space between the tube and the borehole) or passive means (water vapor would RE-condense on the cold borehole wall and seal IT this in fact has been observed). The tube would have to be heated to free itself up before continuing further down, when needed. Our pneumatic excavation tests at 7 torr showed penetration rates of 1 m/min in REGOLITH4. The mass ratio of gas used to material removed out of the hole was 1:500. Assuming a 5 CM diameter hole (current baseline for redwater), the required mass of gas would be 10 KG. Most of the sources of compressed gas are at high TRL. Gas can be brought from the earth (MARS2020 mission brings a tank of compressed N2 to blow dust off rocks), helium pressurant can be used from landed systems, rocket fuel can be burned and turned into gas, and isru gasses (H2/O2) could also be used. Finally, a compressor could compress martian air. Moxi on MARS2020 has a compressor that would take 100 hours to compress 10 KG of CO2 from 7 torr to 760 torr. To extract the required 16 tons of water, a pool of approximately 3.1 m in diameter has to be created, which is feasible. The process of water extraction would take several weeks. Our thermal models using mathcad as well as calculations show that require heat for melting is 1.5 KW and for keeping the water hose warm along the 25 m length is 1 KW. Figure 1 shows redwater system on athlete rover. IT uses solar panels and mmrtg to provide electrical power and heat. Figure 2 shows redwater in its stored configuration for launch while figure 3 shows the undercarriage and BHA.