The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT), part of PRIME-1¶
IM-2 · landed · NASA payload
A 1-meter rotary-percussive drill. It brings regolith up from depth in 10 cm 'bites' for the mass spectrometer MSOLO to analyze, and measures soil strength and temperature as it drills. An identical unit was built for the VIPER rover.
PI: Kris Zacny (Honeybee Robotics)
Built by: Honeybee Robotics (a Blue Origin company), for NASA Kennedy Space Center, which led PRIME-1 (company)
| Technology | subsurface drill (ISRU prospecting, regolith properties) |
| Moon Base need | DN-007 L, DN-008 L, DN-013 L, #0605 (The study's reading. No NASA gap names TRIDENT or PRIME-1. The data gaps ask for in-situ water ice and volatile measurements and regolith strength to 1 m depth at the South Pole, which is what TRIDENT was built to do. NASA says the drill data would inform ISRU systems that build 'everything from landing pads to rocket fuel'.) |
| Route onto CLPS | STMD; No open call. PRIME-1 is an STMD Game Changing Development payload led by NASA Kennedy. A 2019-2020 GCD test compared TRIDENT with a second drill (PVEx) in thermal vacuum and found the mass spectrometer's signal more repeatable with TRIDENT. NASA asked its CLPS vendors for bids to fly PRIME-1 in July 2020 and awarded Intuitive Machines about $47 million in October 2020 to deliver it, as its own CLPS task order (TO PRIME-1).; 2020-10-16 |
| Timeline | first funding 2008 (earliest award found in the drill line: SBIR 075118 / NNX08CD23P); the team says over 20 years of NASA funding; first flight test not in public sources; selected 2020-10-16 (CLPS delivery award for PRIME-1; the GCD project started in February 2020 per TechPort 116360); launch 2025-02-26; landing 2025-03-06 |
| On the Moon | partly operated |
| FO | company-level |
Flights before the Moon¶
None found in the public sources.
Heritage hardware¶
- design heritage (earlier Honeybee drills, ground and field tested only): TRIDENT is the last step of a 1 m drill line at Honeybee: the Mars Icebreaker drill, the lighter LITA drill (2010, tested on a rover in the Atacama), then the Resource Prospector (RP) drill, which reached TRL 6 in Glenn's VF13 lunar thermal vacuum chamber and on the RP rover prototype at Johnson. The team says progress was paced by funding, not engineering. None of these drills flew.
"development at Honeybee Robotics for over 20 yr under various"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…"technology was driven by the funding profile rather than"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…"The Lunar Prospector Drill is based on the Icebreaker drill which was developed for penetrating ice and ice cemented ground on the surface of Mars"
— NTRS 20150011440, Kleinhenz et al., VF13 tests of August 2014"the Icebreaker-2/Life In The Atacama (LITA) drill, designed originally in 2010"
— NTRS 20160006480
- flight unit and twin: Two identical flight units were built, one for PRIME-1 and one for VIPER. Before flight they passed thermal vacuum, vibration, shock and EMI/EMC tests. A separate engineering unit took the 'dirty' drilling tests. An engineering model was also drilled in field sites (Bishop, California, 2023; Haughton Crater in the Arctic).
"TRIDENT was developed and two identical units"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…"Flight units (FUs) of TRIDENT drills for the PRIME-1 and"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…"In September 2023 two holes were drilled with TRIDENT at each of three sites"
— NTRS 20240000608, page 1 (Stoker et al., LPSC 2024)
Funding before the lunar flight¶
- STMD Game Changing Development, PRIME-1 project (TechPort 116360, 2020-2026), with Honeybee Robotics as a cofunding partner. TechPort gives no amount; the CLPS delivery (about $47 million) is a separate SMD task order. (STMD GCD; FY2020-FY2025): amount not in public sources
"STMD’s Game Changing Development program funds PRIME-1."
— NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Land Water-Measuring Payload on the Moon - NASA"Cofunding Partner"
— TechPort project 116360, otherOrganizations (Honeybee Robotics, Ltd.)
- NASA Kennedy purchase order to Honeybee Robotics for the PRIME-1 TRIDENT drill (80KSC020P0021). The award text names PRIME-1 and TRIDENT, so this is the flight unit's money. (NASA contract (KSC), under PRIME-1; 2020-2025): $7,608,630
"POLAR RESOURCES ICE MINING EXPERIMENT -1 (PRIME) THE REGOLITH AND ICE DRILL FOR EXPLORING NEW TERRAIN (TRIDENT) DRILL FABRICATION AND TESTING."
— USAspending.gov, award 80KSC020P0021, description; obligated 7608629.83, 2020-08-01 to 2025-04-30
- NASA contract to Honeybee to test a TRL 6 TRIDENT in thermal vacuum and build breadboard avionics (80NSSC19C0056). It names TRIDENT but not a mission; it came before PRIME-1's CLPS task order. (NASA contract (NSSC); 2019): $625,000
"TESTING OF TRL-6 TRIDENT IN HBR LARGE TVAC CHAMBER."
— USAspending.gov, award 80NSSC19C0056, description; obligated 625000.0, 2019-05-17 to 2019-09-16
- SBIR Phase III to Honeybee to bring its SBIR-developed drill to a TRL 6 engineering test unit for Resource Prospector (NNX15CK04C). The team says the Resource Prospector drill was TRIDENT's primary design. Obligated amount; the award's ceiling was $1,919,112. (NASA SBIR Phase III; 2015-2019): $1,649,205
"DEVELOP AN ENGINEERING TEST UNIT THAT MEETS THE DEFINITION OF TRL 6 FOR THE RESOURCE PROSPECTOR MISSION"
— USAspending.gov, award NNX15CK04C, description; obligated 1649205.0, 2015-05-26 to 2019-01-30"achieving a technology readiness level of 6, and served as the primary design of the TRIDENT drill."
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…, Zacny et al. 2025, section 2
- SBIR Phase III to Honeybee to adapt its SBIR-developed drill for remote operation on a rover-scale platform (NNX15CK01P). The record names no mission; tying it to the Resource Prospector drill is the study's reading (same year, same task). (NASA SBIR Phase III; 2015): $187,929
"MODIFY THE EXISTING SBIR-DEVELOPED DRILL SO THAT IT MAY BE REMOTELY OPERATED ON A SMALLER PLATFORM (ROVER SCALE)"
— USAspending.gov, award NNX15CK01P, description; obligated 187929.0, 2015-01-27 to 2015-04-30
- NASA SBIR Phase I, 'One-Meter Class Drilling for Planetary Exploration' (075118 / NNX08CD23P). Linked by company (UEI F7UHKQTEYHW8), technology (a 1 m rotary-percussive drill) and title, which the later drill contracts reuse. The abstract does not name TRIDENT. The team credits SBIR among TRIDENT's funders. (NASA SBIR; 2008): $99,379
"understand and characterize the fundamental limitations of drilling one to three meters into challenging materials"
— SBIR.gov award data, award 075118, Phase I abstract; NNX08CD23P, award amount 99379.0"from various NASA programs such as Small Business"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…, acknowledgments
- NASA SBIR Phase II, same title (075118 / NNX09CA89C), PI Kris Zacny: a breadboard rotary-percussive 1 m drill tested in Mars conditions. Linked as the Phase I above. (NASA SBIR; 2009-2011): $599,683
"develop, via testing in a simulated Mars environment, a breadboard one-meter sampling drilling system"
— SBIR.gov award data, award 075118, Phase II abstract; NNX09CA89C, award amount 599683.0
- NASA Ames SBIR-funded contract to Honeybee for flight-ready drilling in permafrost and ice for a Phoenix follow-on (NNA10DA80C). Tying it to the Icebreaker drill, a named TRIDENT ancestor tested by Ames, is the study's reading; the record does not name Icebreaker. (NASA SBIR (Ames); 2010-2013): $775,799
"AUTOMATED FLIGHT-READY DRILLING TECHNOLOGIES FOR PERMAFROST AND ICE"
— USAspending.gov, award NNA10DA80C, description; obligated 775798.55, 2010-02-10 to 2013-11-30
- Two later NASA contracts to Honeybee under the same title, 'One-Meter Class Drilling for Planetary Exploration' (80NSSC20C0006, 2019-2020, $2,217,416; this entry) and 80NSSC20C0677 (2020-2026, $15,387,998, next entry). The records name neither TRIDENT, PRIME-1 nor VIPER. Which drill unit they paid for is not in public sources; they may be VIPER's. Not counted as PRIME-1 money. (NASA contract (NSSC), probably SBIR Phase III by its title; 2019-2020): $2,217,416
"ONE-METER CLASS DRILLING FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION"
— USAspending.gov, award 80NSSC20C0006, description; obligated 2217416.0, 2019-10-24 to 2020-08-14
- See the entry above (80NSSC20C0677). Mission and unit not named in the record. (NASA contract (NSSC); 2020-2026): $15,387,998
"ONE-METER CLASS DRILLING FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION"
— USAspending.gov, award 80NSSC20C0677, description; obligated 15387998.0, 2020-09-14 to 2026-07-31
How it got onto CLPS¶
"NASA is asking its 14 Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) partners to submit bids to fly the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment (PRIME-1)"
— NASA Asks Commercial Partners to Land Water-Measuring Drill on Moon - NASA, 19 Jul 2020"NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines of Houston approximately $47 million to deliver a drill combined with a mass spectrometer to the Moon"
— NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Land Water-Measuring Payload on the Moon - NASA, 16 Oct 2020"However, the signal response from the MSolo units was more repeatable for the TRIDENT drill."
— TechPort project 116380, outcome, closed out 2020-02-01 (Polar Ice to Water Drill Evaluation, GCD)"CLPS CONTRACT AWARD: TO PRIME-1"
— NASA press kit, Commercial Lunar Payload Services IM-2 (Intuitive Machines-2) Lunar Mission
On the Moon¶
Athena landed on its side, so TRIDENT could not drill. In about 20 minutes it ran every actuator: launch locks released, deploy and feed stages fully extended, auger rotated, percussion hammered, and the bit heater and temperature sensors worked, while covered in regolith thrown up at landing. The team says it performed as in preflight tests. NASA counts it as a successful hardware demonstration, not a drilling result.
"landed on its side, which prevented the TRIDENT drill from"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…"avionics box were covered in a thick layer of lunar regolith"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…"the auger rotated, the drill extended to its full range, the percussion system performed a hammering motion"
— NASA’s Lunar Drill Technology Passes Tests on the Moon - NASA, 29 Apr 2025"successfully demonstrated the hardware’s full range of motion in the harsh environment of space"
— NASA Receives Some Data Before Intuitive Machines Ends Lunar Mission - NASA"Over the course of approximately 20 minutes, the"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…"landing conditions, the drill performed exactly as it did in its"
— Zacny et al. 2025, TRIDENT Ice Mining Drill for Lunar Volatile Prospecting for PRIME-1 and VIPER…
FO's role¶
Grade: company-level. No FO flight of TRIDENT or its earlier drills (Icebreaker, LITA, RP); NTRS shows only chamber and field tests. The study's earlier traceback found none, but did not know the builder. NASA names Honeybee Robotics as the lead and Kris Zacny as PI; Zacny is also PI of FO's PlanetVac projects, flown on Masten's lander. PlanetVac is a pneumatic sampler, not a rotary-percussive drill, so this is a company-level link (same company and PI, different technology), as in the study's earlier feeder-line map. It is not 'related'. A static drill had no clear need of reduced-gravity flight: its development ran through thermal vacuum and field tests.
FO flights: 0. No FO investment in TRIDENT found. FO's PlanetVac flights (another Honeybee instrument) are in FO records.
"No FO flight of TRIDENT."
— earlier finding of this study (not a public source)"Honeybee Robotics PlanetVac on Masten Lander"
— TechPort project 89413, title (FO project)Data: name: Kris Zacny
— TechPort project 89413, contacts, Principal Investigator"TRIDENT: the PI is Kris Zacny of Honeybee Robotics, also PlanetVac's PI."
— earlier finding of this study (not a public source)
Who built it¶
"Lead Development Organization: Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company."
— NASA press kit, Commercial Lunar Payload Services IM-2 (Intuitive Machines-2) Lunar Mission"PI: Dr. Kris Zacny, [Honeybee Robotics]"
— PRIME-1 Science - NASA Science"PRIME-1 is managed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida."
— NASA Asks Commercial Partners to Land Water-Measuring Drill on Moon - NASA
Moon Base need¶
"There are no ground truth measurements that characterize shallow bulk water ice on the lunar surface"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-007 L: In situ measurements of the horizontal and vertical distribution, abundance, and physical makeup of shallow bulk water ice, current state of data"Characterize lunar regolith physical and mechanical properties as a function of depth"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-008 L: Geotechnical properties of highland regolith at the lunar south pole, description"Volatile abundance to at least 1 m depth, with a 0.1 wt% detection limit."
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-013 L: In situ measurements of the composition, distribution, and abundance of volatiles in the near-surface lunar south pole"Using local lunar resources to enable exploration requires both detailed knowledge of resource availability and systems to extract and process those resources."
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Moon Base technology and knowledge challenges, ISRU systems"This data is extremely beneficial for designing future in-situ resource utilization systems"
— NASA press kit, Commercial Lunar Payload Services IM-2 (Intuitive Machines-2) Lunar Mission
Open questions¶
- How much of the GCD PRIME-1 budget went to TRIDENT, beyond the $7.6 million Kennedy purchase order? Not in public sources.
- Which drill units the two later 'One-Meter Class Drilling' contracts (80NSSC20C0006, 80NSSC20C0677; about $17.6 million together) paid for, PRIME-1's or VIPER's: not in public sources.
- Honeybee's own cofunding of PRIME-1 (TechPort lists it as a cofunding partner): amount not in public sources.
- Figure 4 of Zacny et al. 2025 ('1 m Class Drill Maturation History') lists the funding programs by year; its contents are an image and were not read here.