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Submission

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introduction
title
Deep Well Drilling and Core Sampling
short description
Sustainable Martian colonization presents a mission-critical water scarcity problem. Drilling wells offers the best solution.
Your Submission
NOTE: you must submit AT LEAST a link to your storyboard in Mural or an upload of your storyboard as a PDF. You only need to submit one of these versions, but you may submit both if you are uncertain. Please check the Resources Tab for the PDF template, if you choose to follow that route.
Storyboard Description
Prospecting for groundwater occurs in several phases, starting with selection and preparation of the site, boring the actual hole (including core sample retrieval) and installing well piping, then finally capping the well so it can be used to draw water.

Each phase of this project would require its own EVA, and it would all be immensely more complex than what is briefly shown in these simple storyboards.

Since I am by no means an expert regarding well drilling or Martian geology, I would defer to specialized NASA scientists for fully developing this rough concept to include further relevant details.

These drilling tasks involve moderate yet sustained physical labor and cognitive loads, so plenty of interesting and useful biometrics can be gathered about humans doing real blue-collar work in Martian conditions.

The drilling procedure can easily be accomplished by just a few astronauts, using simple machinery, at low cost. During the process, core samples can be collected to advance our scientific knowledge. Additionally, unexpected deposits of valuable natural resources may be discovered besides water.

The Deep Well Boring Apparatus can be reused many times, to drill many wells.

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