Darryl Lake to address Toronto CIM meeting

If you think drilling core from a comet travelling in space sounds like science fiction, you’re probably not alone. But Darryl Lake, chief executive officer of the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT), is leading the charge to make such fiction a reality.

Lake will discuss drilling technologies for use in low gravity environments at the next Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) luncheon in Toronto. It will be held at the Ontario Club at noon, Thursday Sept. 21.

NORCAT, a Sudbury, Ont.-based research centre, has teamed up with SpaceDev, a publicly traded San Diego, Calif.-based company that sends commercially viable ventures into space. Through advanced x-ray technology, the partners have identified a comet dubbed 1998-KY26, which they believe contains several tonnes of ice beneath its surface. The goal is to retrieve core samples from the comet by using an autonomously operated drilling system.

This effort will help space engineers determine what types of planets or asteroids contain water. This in turn will allow spaces agencies to plan long-term deep space voyages that would use water on these planets as hydrogen-based refueling stations.

Core samples from the comet would also be analyzed for its mineral and metals properties.

NORCAT is testing its rig in the Sudbury area, which has many high-tech mining firms able to lend their expertise. Development of a prototype is under way and, if all goes as planned, a rig could be launched into space on board France’s Ariane-5 rocket some time between 2002 and 2005.

Lake hopes the research mission will eventually lead to a voyage to the planet Mars in 2007.

“This just one of a number of projects [NORCAT is] working on. We’re in the prototype development business,” Lake says. “So far, we’ve done 61 successful product launches.”

Lake has worked at Cambrian College in Sudbury for 30 years in numerous capacities. He graduated with a B.Sc. in chemistry from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1965, and received his M.Sc. in chemistry from Carleton three years later.

To reserve tickets, call Denise Stephenson at 905-888-1164, or Jennifer Barham at 416-955-4756. The cost for members is $30 and $40 for non-members.