Unmanned Unattended Mineral Exploration Drilling and Sample Return System

摘要

The invention is a system and methods for conducting automated, unmanned and unattended drilling operations. The system comprises an unmanned and unattended landing and launch vehicle capable of navigating to a location and reversibly coupled to an automated drilling platform. The automated drilling platform can autonomously conduct drilling operations, such as, collecting core samples. Automated drilling operations may comprise deploying a core drilling rigid mast that autonomously feeds pipe sections onto the rigid mast proportional to depths drilled, then extracting the pipe sections containing core samples sequentially from the mast head, securing the core samples in the launch and landing vehicle, retracting the mast head from the bore line and securing it in the launch and landing vehicle. Once drilling is complete, the automated drilling platform may be de-coupled from the landing and launch vehicle before re-launching the vehicle and returning the samples to an accessible terrain or location.